Women Who Smoke 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.

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

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

Women who smoke during pregnancy are 75% more likely to have children with asthma and 39% more likely of having children with wheezing. Research shows that smoking while pregnant can change the structure of a babies DNA, which weakens the immune system. Maternal smoking is more dangerous to the lungs in the first trimester then in the second and third trimester. Babies born to smoking mothers are likely to have breathing problems at birth from the delayed lung development caused by the chemicals in

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 Hill, Young, Burley, Carter & Lang (2013), smoking amongst teenage girls is the most popular risk factor during pregnancy. The numerous effects of smoking while pregnant are (a) premature births (b) still births (c) miscarriages and (d) low birth rates. There are fifty seven percent of teenage mothers that smoke

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.

Many would argue that childbirth is a beautiful and miraculous event, however the process of the pregnancy is a very fragile time in the mother's life. During this time most everyone would agree that the mother should attempt to do everything that is possible to take care of her body. There are some habits, however, that an extremely difficult to break, even during a pregnancy. The practice of smoking tobacco is one of those habits. Many doctors would argue that smoking is never healthy for the body especially during a pregnancy. For years institutions have sought to produce statistical data to uncover the effects of smoking during a pregnancy. Even with the changing times, statistical studies on this topic, continue to produce the same conclusions.

With the knowledge that smoking causes approximately one in every five deaths in the United States each year, the question still remains of why people still smoke. This addiction is harmful to all those who encounter the smoke, including the unborn child who hasn’t even opened his eyes yet. Research shows that many of the components of nicotine have the ability to cross the placenta and intern result in growth and neurodevelopment problems during childhood and later on in life. There is limited research regarding the visional difficulties of children whose mother’s were exposed to smoke during pregnancy. The review article, “Smoking during pregnancy and vision difficulties in children:

This population-based retrospective cohort study showed association between maternal smoking during pregnancy and low birth weight. The maternal age (25 years and younger) and (35 years and older) was significantly associated with LBW in our study and also similar findings were showed by Zheng et al. We found that the quantity of cigarettes smoked per day had a dose-dependent effect, whereby the infants of mothers who reported smoking more than 15 cigarettes a day during their pregnancy had more LBW babies than those whose mothers smoked fewer than 15 cigarettes a day, in both crude and adjusted analysis. This finding was similar with findings in study by Langley et al. Smoking during pregnancy has a negative effect because the nicotine and carbon monoxide in the blood of a pregnant woman can decrease the blood flow to

Awful breath-As well as making your breath smell, smoking can irritate your gums and lessen your sense of taste.

Cigarette consumption has many logical reasons to why women smoke also. Some of these reasons may relate to the influential reasons women consume alcohol while pregnant. Watt’s conducted a study on Indian/ Alaskan native women who smoked cigarettes and consumed alcohol while pregnant. Watts stated that “Indian/ Alaskan Natives have the highest rate of alcohol and cigarette use during pregnancy” (Watt, 2012, pg. 262). Based on these results it is assumed that the women who abused cigarettes and alcohol while pregnant has some similarities to why they consumed these liquids and drugs. Watt’s procedure was to measure the amounts of cigarettes and alcohol woman consumed in their body while pregnant. According to Watts results “30% of Alaskan/Native American women reported smoking during their pregnancy over the last 30 days” (Watt, 2012, pg.

One of the most common effects of smoking while pregnant is premature labor. A premature birth is any birth before 37 weeks of pregnancy. Premature labor is one of the leading causes of neonatal deaths. Around 15% of babies born premature die within the first month. In the article “Associations between Passive Maternal Smoking during Pregnancy and Preterm Birth: Evidence from a Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies” the authors point out that smoking tobacco while pregnant is a contributing factor for premature birth (Cui, Hong 4-5). Some doctors will tell the patients not to quit smoking only to cut back as much as they can because quitting suddenly could cause too much stress on the mother’s body. This is a valid

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