According to Elizabeth Keyishian, Author of Everything you Need to Know About Smoking writes that “Smoking is dangerous for everybody, but there are special health risk for women. Lung cancer has replaced breast cancer as the leading killer disease for women.”(Keyishian). Remember the warning label on the cigarette passage states that, “‘Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight.’”(Keyishian). Smoking may not seem like a big deal yet, but once a girl or woman starts to smoke it will be difficult to quit. When a female becomes a mother, she may still be smoking and unable to stop, causing harm to the baby. Ob-gyn Robert Welch, who is on the committee of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Providence Hospital in Southfield Michigan, has helped thousands of women realize their dreams of a healthy baby. He states that “‘Smoking cigarettes is probably the number one cause of adverse outcomes for babies’”(Woolston). He has seen the complications many times with the same outcome every time. Babies are born prematurely, born to small, or die before they can be born at all.
Smoking while pregnant not only affects the mother, but the infant as well. The baby’s health will be affected before, during, and after the child is born. “The nicotine, carbon monoxide, and numerous other poisons”(WebMD) the mother would inhale from a cigarette are”...carried through her bloodstream and goes directly to the baby”(WebMD) which causes
In this case, when a woman smokes cigarettes during her nine months she is passing all of the chemicals found in cigarettes to her unborn baby. This exchange of chemicals from mother to baby is harmful for both of their health, but especially for the baby’s health. The chemicals from nicotine poisoning that are getting passed on to the baby deprives that fetus from getting the nutrients it needs from its mother. By the time the baby is born its lungs will be in terrible condition because the nicotine chemicals have destroyed any healthy enzymes that the baby had in its body. The baby may have respiratory issues where it cannot breathe on its own. The baby will then have to be hooked up to a ventilator and placed in an incubation tube until its oxygen levels are high enough to where it can breathe on its own. In the worst case scenario, the baby might have to be placed on an organ donor transplant list to receive a new lung or lungs because the damage from the mother smoking cigarettes has completely ruined the baby’s lungs to where they are not able to be corrected by doctors. This can cause a baby to stay in the hospital for several weeks to months. A long term effect of smoking cigarettes while pregnant can cause the baby to develop asthma once it is born. The baby’s asthma can be contributed to its lungs and respiratory issues it had presented at the time of birth, which was triggered by the nicotine poisoning. A newborn can also be born with heart defects
Second hand smoke is just as harmful and frequently more harmful to a defenseless small child. Over half of all children in the United States breathe in secondhand smoke; whether at home, in a car, or in public. This has caused more than three hundred thousand children to suffer from infections such as, bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections. Breathing in these toxic fumes can cause sudden infant death, asthma which can carry on with a child until adulthood, gum diseases, pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung problems. Another area for concern is breastfeeding an infant while smoking. Hopefully a mother would not sit and hold a baby while smoking, but even walking outside to smoke and then breastfeeding is dangerous. While the effects are smaller than secondhand smoke the mothers could still pass some nicotine and other chemicals to the baby while breastfeeding. It takes about ninety five minutes for the body to eliminate the nicotine, so feeding the baby prior to that could harm her. Smoking while lactating can lead to early weaning, low milk production, and blocked let down reflexes. A mother who does the “right thing” by smoking outside can still jeopardize the child. Residue or smoke stuck to her clothing can irritate the child’s eyes and nose and cause respiratory issues. Smoking has been linked to colic in an infant as well. Infants are twenty four percent more likely to develop colic than an infant not
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.
Your baby may be affected by nicotine and toxic substances in your breast milk, secondhand smoke, and thirdhand smoke.
The NIOSH study reveals that working women’s i.e., reproductive age involved in smoking has adverse effects on their pregnancy and the health of their infant. The evaluation of data of 2009-2013 from the National Health Interview Survey discovered there were 17% of working women who were smokers at their reproductive age and 76% were daily smokers. Further, the study shows the women working in certain industries and businesses have higher smoking
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
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.
Pathophysiology: Tobacco smoke contains 1000 different compounds including carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, carcinogens. The two main compounds that cause harmful effects on a developing fetus is nicotine and carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide has a higher affinity than oxygen for hemoglobin. Which when Carbon monoxide and hemoglobin combine they form boxy hemoglobin which is unable to carry oxygen, which leads to decreased oxygen delivery to the fetus and fetal hypoxia. Nicotine has cardiovascular and central nervous system effects. Nicotine is known to cross the placental barrier causing levels in the amniotic fluid and fetus 15% higher than the mother. The effects of cigarettes can remain with the fetus the rest of their lives. Ranging from
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.
When you start smoking since the very first time, the chemicals inhaled can have an immediate effect in the body. The smoke contains a chemical called carbon monoxide that transfers to the blood instead of oxygen. As a result, the blood cells suffer from oxygen making harder to breathe especially while exercising. It can also be very harmful to smoke during pregnancy due to the fact that a developing baby can suffer from breathing which can also lead to other dysfunctions in the process of the formation. The smoke of cigarettes contains millions of chemicals that cause serious damage to the tissue of the breathing system. There is clear evidence from scientist who state that tobacco smoke increase the risk of suffering many dangerous and fatal
smoking during pregnancy affects fetal brain development and the development in all. Even though there has been an increase in the knowledge about the harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy there is still a significantly large number of pregnant woman that continue to smoke even after they know what can and will happen to their baby. Between 5% and 26% of woman in the United States continues to smoke during pregnancy. These woman are more likely to be single, young and have not had a previous pregnancy and have a low socioeconomic status
While pregnant women who smoke cigarettes on a daily basis can greatly harm their fetus. There are many effects that cigarettes smoking by pregnant women have on their fetus. As researches show that smoking can induce spontaneous abortion too. The Tabaco smoke in cigarettes greatly reduces fetal growth through the presence of nicotine, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen cyanide. Through this research, “if women smoke during pregnancy, their baby is exposed to harmful chemicals such as tar, nicotine, and carbon monoxide. Nicotine causes blood vessels to constrict, so less oxygen and nutrients reach the fetus. Carbon monoxide decreases the amount of oxygen the baby receives” (Medline plus). A good mother should protect their unborn babies because when a pregnant mother smokes, their babies smoke too. Also Smoking while pregnant reduces an unborn baby’s oxygen, this place at risk for poor lung function, and low birth weight. According to this research of pregnant women who smoke cigarettes “the risk of preterm birth and problems with the way the placenta attaches to the uterus are increases in women who smoke during pregnancy. Also, infants born to women who smoke during pregnancy tend to be smaller than those born to nonsmokers. They are more likely to have asthma, colic, and childhood obesity. They also have an increased risk of dying from sudden infant
Some people smoke while they are pregnant. I want to show why that is wrong. It increases the risk that your baby is born prematurely and born with low birth weight. It also increases your baby's heart rate. It can increase your baby's chance of developing lung problems. The more cigarettes you smoke per day, the greater your baby's chances of developing these and other health problems. There is no "safe"
Despite the extensive adverse publicity, the usage of tobacco continues in approximately 25% of all pregnancies in the United States. (Slotkin, 1988). High dosages of nicotine in fetus through maternal infusions cause harm in the nervous system development of the fetus and lessen sustainability and growth. As a result, heavy pregnant smokers were more likely to have a premature delivery. The nicotine tightens the uterine blood vessels and causes a decline of the blood flow on the uterine. Therefore, the supply of oxygen and nutrients available to the embryo decrease rapidly. This compromises cell growth and may have an incompatible effect on the mental development of the offspring. Moreover, prenatal nicotine exposure not only resulted in a
Smoking starts causing harm, even to the unborn. A mother is a baby`s only form of life support through the umbilical cord. So,