If your spouse is a smoker, it is imperative that she give up cigarettes, at least while she is carrying the baby. Smoking during pregnancy is not a good sign for an unborn baby.
Here is a list of the ways in which smoking harms the unborn baby:
• It increases the mother’s risk of a miscarriage.
• It exposes the fetus to the toxins in tobacco smoke.
• It damages the placenta.
• It increases the risk of placental abruption (separation of the placenta from the uterus).
• It lowers oxygen levels in the fetus’s blood.
• It induces premature birth and lower than average birth weight.
• It causes the baby to be born with underdeveloped organs.
• It leads to impaired lung function in the infant.
• It doubles the baby’s rate of susceptibility to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).
• It leads to general ill health.
• It increases susceptibility to diseases such as asthmatic bronchitis.
• It increases the likelihood of the child growing up to become a smoker.
While your spouse may realize the danger of smoking during her pregnancy, it may not be easy for her to give up smoking. Most smokers who try to give up their addiction suffer a strong craving for cigarettes. You can help her by reminding her that the cravings are only temporary, and by offering your moral support to her.
These are some things she can do to help your spouse give up smoking:
• Recognize and help her resist any craving to smoke.
• Help her fight the craving to smoke by distracting her with other activities.
• Discuss her addiction with her doctor.
Paul Banas
http://www.articlesbase.com/women’s-issues-articles/stop-smoking-during-pregnancy-136474.html
December 17th, 2009 at 7:42 pm
can a history of smoking also cause premature labor even if you stop smoking during the pregnancy?
my aunt has smoked all her life and four years ago had a baby born almost 2 months premature. even though she stopped smoking during her pregnancy, is it possible that all the chemicals in her body could have been one of the reasons for my cousin being premature?
December 18th, 2009 at 12:44 am
i just learned today that if you’ve been smoking and you become prego you shouldn’t stop smoking cuz your body needs the chemicals and that you should just cut back because when you stop smoking that’s when the chances of birth defects come at a higher risk..
References :
not a smoker but prego with my first baby so ive been looking at all kinds of info..