Smoking During Pregnancy
All mothers know that smoking during pregnancy is not good for the baby, here we look at why and how you can try to stop.
When a woman smokes she inhales up to 4000 chemicals into her body including: nicotine, and carbon monoxide which we know cuts down the oxygen in your blood. Oxygen is needed by the baby to develop.
Why Shouldn’t I Smoke Whilst Pregnant?
There are many reasons why you shouldn’t smoke during your pregnancy and these include:
- Ectopic pregnancy
- Chances of miscarriage
- Problems with the placenta
- Premature birth
- Low birth weight
- Increases chance of baby having chest infections or asthma
- Cot death
- Can increase risk of having a baby with cleft palate/oral cleft
What About Second Hand Smoke?
This is still not good for your baby. Studies show that if your partner smokes you can still be at risk of a low weight baby.
What If I Cut Down?
The best solution is to stop as smoking any cigarettes still transfers chemicals to your baby.
I Am Worried That if I Give Up Smoking Whilst Pregnant I Will Put Weight On!
Eating the right foods with moderate exercise will help to keep weight gain in check. Although a lot of women find that any extra weight they have gained during the pregnancy is lost when breastfeeding.
How Can I Give Up?
- The NHS is the best place to start as most health centres will offer an NHS Stop Smoking Service
- The NHS also offers a confidential helpline where trained advisors can offer you solutions to help you stop smoking Tel: 0800 169 9 169
- Make a list of why you smoke and what benefits you will get from quitting
- Consider hypnotherapy as a way to stop
- Contact a qualified acupuncturist
- Counselling
- Drink lots of water while giving up to help suppress urges and keep your hands busy
Can I Use Nicotine Replacement Therapy Whilst Pregnant?
Both you and your midwife would need to weigh up the risks before starting nicotine replacement therapy. However, NRT only tends to deliver nicotine into your system rather than carbon monoxide and the other poisons contained in cigarettes.
What Benefits Will I Get By Giving Up?
- Your number one benefit will be for the baby
- But also for you- during labour and after
- Financially better off – if you smoked 20 a day you could spend up to £30,000 in just 20 years on your habit
- Within 6 hours your blood pressure will return to normal
- Within 24- 48 hours your body will not have any carbon monoxide and nicotine in it
- You will have a cough as your lungs improve, but within 3-9 months this will have improved
- Within 5-10 years risk of heart attacks and lung cancer is halved
- Food will taste better
- Have more energy
- Will have more time as each time you have a cigarette you are wasting 5-10 minutes of your day
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