Smoking – A Threat for Pregnancy

Smoking is harmful for pregnancy. If you are planning to have a baby, then you must decide to quit smoking. During pregnancy you must take good care of yourself and your baby, so smoking is strictly prohibited as it will have harmful effects on the baby.

Almost every people know that there are various harmful effects of smoking cigarettes. There is a big chance of getting heart disease, cancer, stroke or hypertension. In addition, there are some other harmful effects for both the mum to be and developing baby, that are associated with smoking of cigarettes.

Due to the fact that the foetus and the mother are connected by the Placenta and umbilical cord, so everything which are mother consume is passed to the baby. This occurs due to absorption of substances into the mother’s blood and is transported to the unborn baby by the umbilical cord. Similar to the nutrients the cord blood also passes the toxic substances to the baby.

There are many problems inclined with smoking of cigarettes at the time of pregnancy are given below:

  1. Women who smoke cigarettes will have higher chances of abnormal implantation as well as bleeding from vagina. Smoking of cigarettes also lead to premature babies, Preeclampsia and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome).
  2. Smoking women will have a baby with low birth weight. On an average the baby of a smoking mother will have 200 grams less weight than the average weight of a normal baby. The babies those who are of less weight will have a tendency towards more disabilities and other diseases. Also, their mortality rate is higher than the normal weight baby.
  3. Children born to smoker mother have behavioral issues. They are hyperactive and remain irritated.

Doctors say that if a mother quits smoking before planning to have a baby or immediately after getting confirmation of pregnancy then she will be able to avoid all the negative effects of smoking. Hence it is best to quit smoking completely and it will help you and your baby to stay healthy. This will lead to a safe pregnancy.