Smoking and Your Unborn Child
If your health isn’t enough to make you quit smoking, then the health of your baby should be. Did you know that the nicotine (the addictive substance in cigarettes), carbon monoxide, and numerous other poisons you inhale from a cigarette are carried through your bloodstream and go directly to your baby? Smoking while pregnant could cause the following things to happen to your unborn child. Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including dangerous substances like cyanide, lead, and at least 60 cancer-causing compounds. Increase your baby’s heart rate. Increase the chances of miscarriage and stillbirth. Lower the amount of oxygen available to you and your growing baby. Increase the risk that your baby is born prematurely and/or born with low birth weight.
The more cigarettes you smoke per day, the greater your baby’s chances of developing these and other health problems.
Here are some tips that may help when you’re trying to kick the habit. Hide your matches, lighters, and ashtrays. Designate your home a non-smoking area. Ask people who smoke, to not smoke around you.
Drinking fewer caffeinated beverages; caffeine may stimulate your urge to smoke. Also, avoid alcohol, as it may also increase your urge to smoke and can be harmful to your baby. There is no safe level of smoking while pregnant.