Essay On Smoking While Pregnant

Pregnancy is a joyful time for most families because that means the mother is bringing a new member into the world who will be welcomed into the family. A mother holding her newborn healthy baby in her arms for the first time makes her feel a sense of pride. This is because she has followed all of her doctor’s instructions and listened to his advice on how to keep herself healthy, and how to deliver a healthy baby after her nine months are up. But what if the new mom to be did not listen to the doctor’s advice? What if she decided to smoke during her pregnancy because she assumed it would not hurt the baby? What health problems or birth defects would the baby be challenged with when it was born? Women who smoke during their pregnancies on

Smoking during the first trimester of pregnancy could lead to the placenta not developing fully. As the placenta carries oxygen and blood to the foetus this may impair growth and link to low birth weights. Babies born to smoking mothers are 30% more likely to have a premature baby which could lead to respiratory distress, problems feeding and they could have difficulty regulating their body temperature. Babies undergo withdrawal like systems and tend to be more jittery and harder to settle. Babies being brought up in a smoking household are at increased risk of cot death and may go on to develop asthma during childhood.

For our other target audience of pregnant women, we dedicated two slides to smoking during pregnancy and the repercussions of smoking around their new young baby. We gave them information such as a low birth weight, smaller organs, likelihood of cot death and an increased risk of miscarriage. After they have had their baby, we gave them other information. This information included things such as meningitis, hearing loss, cot death, asthma and breathing problems. As well as this, we also wanted to emphasise the mothers health and how it would effect them.

Smoking while pregnant can cause a various of issues to the fetus and to the child while they are in their young ages. It can cause the child to be born 162-226 grams. This weight is lighter than a baby whose mother did not smoke. For example, while the baby is in the womb, it will slow the development of the baby’s organs, due to the toxins entering the baby’s bloodstream (Holmes ?). Another way it can harm the baby while he/she is still in the womb is by causing the baby to be stillborn (not cited yet). This sympathetic damage would have lasting impact on the mother psychologically. This could be especially painful when she has done everything right to protect her unborn

More then 15% of women smoking while pregnant. Babies who's mothers smoke have more then 20% higher chance of being born with cleft lip, cleft palates, shortened or missing limbs, and abnormally shaped heads compared to babies born to nonsmoking mothers. Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are even more likely to have learning disorders and behavioral problems.

Therefore, planned pregnancy is a huge key factor in preventing birth defects, because often times birth defects develop even before women might know they are pregnant. Because women don’t know they are pregnant, they may consume alcohol, causing harm to their babies. Smoking causes harm to infants before, during, and after pregnancies. Even in the womb nicotine, carbon monoxide, and many other poisons women inhale from cigarettes are carried through their bloodstream. Smoking while pregnant causes many developmental issues including birth defects, lung problems, stunted growth, increase in babies heart rates, low birth weight, or result in stillbirths. However, there are many other agents known to cause these developmental defects. For example, drugs and other medications such as; thalidomide, isotretinoin, valproic acid, methotrexate, and mycophenolate mofetil are also known to cause the same birth defects (Simeone, et al., 2015). Putting healthy supplements, unlike these types of drugs into individuals systems when pregnant can help prevent infant

According to the Center for Disease Control, (CDC) there are toxic chemicals in cigarettes that “affect the brain in ways that interfere with its regulation of infants' breathing” (CDC, 2010). Autopsy reports also show “higher concentrations of nicotine in their lungs and higher levels of cotinine (a biological marker for secondhand smoke exposure) than infants who die from other causes” (CDC, 2010).

Although, a majority of smokers are aware of the negative health implications of smoking, they continue the lifestyle. These women do not want to deal with the physiological, psychological, and emotional changes of smoking cessation. Some mothers may not smoke during pregnancy but may pick up the habit after pregnancy, which is detrimental to the health of their child. Second-hand smoking, also known as passive smoking, causes cardiovascular disease, pneumonia, sudden infant death syndrome, and asthma (CDC, 2014). Since 1964, there have been 2.5 million deaths that were a result of secondhand smoke (CDC, 2014). According to the American Cancer Society (2015), passive smokers are exposed to far more chemicals and toxins than the primary smoker due to the cigarette filter that only the primary smoker benefits from (American Cancer Society, 2015). This individual will be screened out of the MIST program until she has made the

Smoking and being pregnant are not suitable and any woman in this condition should stop smoking right away. What's the safest way to do this though? Anyone who smokes understands how nerve-racking stopping this habit can be and high stress levels are also not great for the mom or unborn baby. Some stop smoking products should not be used during pregnancy because they contain nicotine or other ingredients which are not beneficial for the fetus.

Infants born from mothers that smoked are three times more likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), a condition in which babies who appears healthy die suddenly while sleeping, as are babies whose mothers do not smoke during pregnancy. This is also a point of contention between researchers as well. "Children born to mothers who smoked while pregnant, and possibly children whose grandmothers smoked while pregnant, have a higher risk of developing childhood asthma (Child)." Women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to be born with birth defects such as cleft lip or palate and to have low birth weight.

In 1965, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Palo Alto Medical Clinic in California, published a study of the pregnancy data of 5,659 women, who received care at their facilities from 1952 to 1958 (Downing) . This study recorded the end results of each pregnancy for both smokers, of which there were 2,630, and non-smokers, of which there were 3,029 (Downing). This study found mixed results within different types of pregnancy complications. The study found that there were 88 premature births in smokers, compared to 66 in non-smokers (Downing). At the same time there were more of both abortions and post-natal deaths in non-smokers than in smokers. ‘Chart 1-A’ illustrates the comparison of the pregnancies of both the

beside that, the cigarette smoke can caused increased risk of miscarriage and infant death. the miscarriage and infant death is happen because in the cigarette 4000 chemical substance like the carbon monoxide, butane, nicotine, ammonia and others. the contains of nicotine is poison and used as a pest repellent agent. after that, the carbon monoxide also can causing the infant death because carbon monoxide that will kill by reducing the ability of blood to carry oxygen. so, the infant will get the low oxygen from the umbilical cord. if the infant get low oxygen in one or two weeks, the infant can be uterine in

Smoking during pregnancy has remained one of the most common preventable causes of infant morbidity and mortality. The rationality behind concentrating on low birth weight infant and prematurity as a target of importance is made clear by steps taken by the United States government to develop intervention programs that focus on the prevention of

Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are vulnerable and more prone to suffer from various allergies such as ear infections, lung infections and asthma. Passive smoking is also very harmful for pregnant woman and they should try and keep themselves away from any kind of smoke. Also, one must remember that there is no ‘safe’ level of smoking. Be it a pack or just one cigarette, your baby is going to be affected adversely.

Smoking starts causing harm, even to the unborn. A mother is a baby`s only form of life support through the umbilical cord. So,