Prenatal Smoking: A Summary

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

Cartmell et al. (2011) suggests that children are at the most risk for being exposed to second-hand smoke in their homes and in vehicles. Of the children exposed to passive smoke, the majority live in low socioeconomic households (Rowa-Dewar & Ritchie, 2014). Individuals of low socioeconomic status are more likely to smoke more cigarettes, are less likely to stop smoking, and are more apt to smoke in their homes and their cars with children being present (Rowa-Dewar & Ritchie, 2014). Al-Sayed & Ibrahim (2014) make it a point to mention that the amount of nicotine that children receive passively from parents who smoke is comparable to each child actually smoking roughly 60-150 cigarettes over a one year time-frame. The effects that smoking has on the health and well-being of individuals has been thoroughly researched and documented. Although this topic is of much importance, the effects of passive smoke on individuals, especially children, is a subject matter that deserves to be looked at closely. What are the effects of second-hand smoking on children? This paper will utilize evidence-based research to illustrate the various components of the effects that second-hand smoke has on the population of

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.

Quitting smoking before becoming pregnant is the ideal situation. For women that are already pregnant quitting early can still give your baby a chance of healthy development. Some mothers and adults may think it is ok to start smoking after the baby is born, but secondhand smoke is still harmful to the baby’s health. Intervention programs start with your primary care physician and the nursing staff. They screen for tobacco usage in the adult’s home where the baby with life or currently living. Will give brief advice on how to stop smoking, provide counseling referrals for behavioral interventions. Also, pharmaceutical intervention in non-pregnant adults living in the same household, to reduce the risk of second-hand smoke exposer. Community

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?

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

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.

Constantly smoking means the baby is smoking to, therefore smoking can begin to effect the baby’s only sources of oxygen and nutrients. Smoking contains over 4,000 chemicals including: lead, cyanide, arsenic and carbon monoxide. These chemicals can spread to the blood stream, which is the baby’s only source of oxygen and nutrients. Smoking may also result with problems taking place in the placenta. This is connected to the baby and is their source of food, oxygen and eliminates buildup of wastes. The baby can separate from the womb, which can result in bleeding, for this effect can be dangerous to the mother and child.

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

Also, smoking while pregnant has also lead to being the largest cause of low birth weight in babies. Smoking while pregnant affects the fetal lung development, causing offspring to fail to reach maximum lung function in childhood with subsequent lifelong decreases in pulmonary function. ( (Hayatbakhsh MR, n.d.) At birth, infants born to smokers show decreased pulmonary functions tests. Basically, anything that has to do with their breathing is substantically decreased. This increases the chances of a baby being hospitalized for respitory infections, increased wheezing, and in childhood asthma. The following quote is a research study that has shown that smoking any type of nicotine contained cigarette will result in the following, ” Moshammer and colleagues studied more than 20,000 children aged 6 to 12 years old across Europe and North America and found in utero smoke was associated with decreases in lung function parameters, with a 4% lower MMEF corresponding to a 40% increase in risk of poor lung function (defined as MMEF < 75% of expected).” (35) That number is absolutely astonishing, 40 percent of children have an increased chance of poor lung function because mother’s do not understand or care to stop the negative outcomes of smoking nicotine e-cigs or cigarette’s. Preterm delivery ( before 37 weeks) becomes increased for pregnant smokers, which interrupts normal lung development formation in itself. Most of the studies have been primarily focused on animals and then compared to

Exposure to second hand smoke, also called involuntary smoking, occurs when non-smokers breathe in the cigarette smoke from others around them. Second hand smoke is harmful to both pregnant women and infants (NTP). Paternal smoking reduces birth weight by about 2 oz. (Berger 115). After birth, babies exposed to cigarette smoke may experience more colds, lung problems, and even ear infections.

There are several opinions about whether if smoking is bad or not to your baby´s development during your pregnancy time, the truth is that smoking during pregnancy is a really dangerous gamble that only the mother can take or no. Smoking is bad for your health because it increase the risk of heart disease, cancer, gum disease, and just a variety of health conditions; that´s the reason for women to stop smoking for their own health, and when you are pregnant you have the responsibility of your baby´s health too. Smoking during pregnancy can cause also a lot of problems to the baby and later we are going to talk about some of them. Based on many pieces of research made by American Pregnancy Association show that 12-20 percent of pregnant women

The study found that the birthweight difference of the control and experimental groups were not different and therefore tobacco exposure did not alter the birthweight of neonates. However, there is a dose dependent difference in the birth weights of those who were exposed to tobacco. Each additional cigarette during the 3rd trimester resulted in a 11.55g decrease in birth weight. This kind of trend was also examined in the neonates length and head size. Tobacco exposed neonates had, on average, lower attention scores at 2

A teratogen is defined as, “any agent that can potentially cause a birth defect or negatively alter cognitive and behavioral outcomes” (Santrock, 2013, p. 82). According to the Baby Center website, cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 teratogens that can affect prenatal development (Woolston, 1997-2014). Cigarettes are the most common nonmedical drug used during pregnancy (Key, et al., 2007, p. 623). A fetus is dependent on its mother for all of its nutrients needed to grow properly. When the mother chooses to smoke cigarettes, the fetus is starved of both oxygen and nutrients. Several studies have been done showing that this effect on prenatal development can have consequences extending beyond the womb.

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