How Does Tobacco Affect Babies

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.

Over the years, statistics show that smoking cigarettes can cause many serious health issues. These issues compound when the smoker is expecting. Fourteen percent of U.S. mothers smoke while pregnant despite knowing the fact that smoking causes harm to both mother and child. In younger mothers, age 25 and under, that number rises significantly to 20 percent. If a woman smokes then becomes pregnant, she must decide whether or not to quit. Woman are aware that cigarettes are not good for them or their baby, but do they understand the severity of smoking while carrying their unborn child in their womb? In this paper I will evaluate how women who smoke while pregnant are at high risk for early miscarriage, preterm birth, and birth defects. Is smoking a cigarette worth risking the life of your unborn child?

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.

Overall, of 103830 records 82534 mothers’ data were analyzed that were obtained from the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Certificate of Live Birth. Descriptive results of maternal and birth characteristics are shown in Table 1. Approximately, 57% of the mothers were white, 33% black, 7% Asian, and 3.6% other ethnicities, respectively. 29% of the maternal age at delivery was between 20-24 years old, 22% was between 25-29 years old, 19% was between 30-34 years old, 14% was between 19 years and younger, 11% was between 35-39 years old, and 4% was between 40 years and older, respectively. The number of LBW babies (< 2500 g) among mothers who smoked and non-smoked were 1359 (1.6%) and 81144 (98.3%), respectively. 16 % of mothers who smoked (n=5544) gave low birth weight babies. 5.4% of low birth weight babies had mothers smoked between 10-14 cigarettes per day.

Introduction: A lot has been said about the relation between maternal smoking and infant mortality in the recent past. According to a report from CDC, the infant mortality rate for 2013 was 5.96 infant deaths per 1000 live births. Sudden infant death syndrome was found to be the 4th leading cause of infant mortality (Kochanek, Xu, Murphy, Miniño, & Kung, 2011). Maternal cigarette smoking is an

The study also allowed the researcher to see the knowledge of women concerning risk factors to sudden infant death syndrome. The study targeted sixty-one women, ages twenty-four to forty-seven. Among these women were thirty-five nurses, and the rest of the twenty-six women were those who had no medical education or background. The average percentage of women who smoke was twenty-five percent, but including the nurses caused the percentage to go up to thirty percent. The prevalence of smoking during pregnancy turned out to be six percent. There was high environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) exposure to infants that were identified among these women. The outcome of this case study was unsatisfactory, showing that the targeted women, including nurses, did not have knowledge of the risk factors of sudden infant death syndrome ("[Cigarette Smoke as a Risk Factor of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)--Assessment of Knowledge and Behavior of

Smoking causes problems in birth, some are preterm birth, the way the placenta attaches to the uterus, increase your baby's heart rate, and increase the chances of miscarriage

Smoking cigarettes has been known for several years to be harmful to the individuals who choose to smoke. Putting tar into your lungs, causing cancer, heart disease and stroke are just a few reasons many Americans choose not to smoke. However, seventeen percent of people in the United States are smokers. With that seventeen percent, ten percent of women smoke during pregnancy. Not smoking during pregnancy should be a no-brainer but women still do it. Smoking during pregnancy has been known to cause retardation, low birth weight, premature birth, and infant mortality. New studies are showing that smoking is now causing chromosomal

Over the years, statistics show that smoking cigarettes can cause many serious health issues. These issues compound when the smoker is expecting. Fourteen percent of U.S. mothers smoke while pregnant despite knowing the fact that smoking causes harm to both mother and child. In younger mothers, age 25 and under, that number rises significantly to 20 percent. If a woman smokes then becomes pregnant, she must decide whether or not to quit. Woman are aware that cigarettes are not good for them or their baby, but do they understand the severity of smoking while carrying their unborn child in their womb? In this paper I will evaluate how women who smoke while pregnant are at high risk for early miscarriage, preterm birth, and birth defects. Is smoking a cigarette worth risking the life of your unborn child?

Cigarette smoking increases a wide range of issues, with prematurity (20-30%) and low birth weight (which doubles) being the most probable. The first trimester is considered a critical time for growth as the fetus is beginning to develop organs. If a woman smokes only in her trimester and then quits, she has put her fetus at risk of developing a birth defect. Also, the second and third trimesters are important as well due to the fact that neurological defects result if a woman is smoking

Some of the common things that are seen happening to babies when the mother smokes is babies born prematurely, too small or dying off before they are even born at all. Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including things like cyanide, lead, and at least 60 cancer-inducing compounds (Chris Woolston). When the baby’s only source of oxygen and nutrients is via your bloodstream, they will be consuming this toxic brew from the cigarettes because it goes no other place than the very bloodstream your unborn child feeds and breathes from. Out of those 4,000-plus compounds there are two in particular that are especially dangerous to your baby: nicotine and carbon monoxide. These toxins account for just about every smoking-related complication in pregnant. (Ob-gyn James

When a pregnant woman continues to smoke (based on what they smoke), the baby is exposed to many more hazards than they are for alcohol. Exposure to cigarette smoke can cause respiratory and cardiovascular system defects as well as growth restriction causing the baby to be born prematurely. When exposed to marijuana, babies develop various internal health problems such as a reduced blood sugar and calcium in blood level, sepsis (blood infection), ICH (intracranial hemorrhage), fast breathing and more.

Before succumbing to their smoking related disease, the afflicted smokers will inevitably need care for their condition, incurring tremendous costs. This can cost the population of smokers billions of dollars every year (Daynard). If the individual smoker does not have insurance or is otherwise unable to meet the enormous costs, the bill can end up passed to the taxpayers, merely passing along the expense. In addition, the dangers posed by cigarettes are not limited to smokers themselves. Every year in the United States, 400,000 babies are born whose mothers smoked while pregnant. Additionally, smoking is thought to be responsible for in excess of 20,000 miscarriages and possibly seven times that number (Proctor 5). The babies that survive to term are at risk for a host of health issues, including low birth weight, increased danger of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, as well as possible delays in mental and behavioral development and increased possibility of birth defects such as cleft palate (Ashwin). Though the fetus does not actually inhale the smoke, the substances and poisons entering the mothers body cannot help but affect the unborn.

Cigarette smoking harms the fetus and the pregnant women. There are about only 20% of women that smoke that are able to quit when they are pregnant.