Pregnancy and Smoking: The Facts

Pregnancy and Smoking are very dangerous for you and your baby. Your doctor will have told you that pregnancy and smoking are not a good mix, if you didn't already know. But at the same time you may know of people whose parents smoked who seem perfectly normal and healthy. Maybe your own mother smoked when she was pregnant with you. So what is the problem?

Unfortunately statistics show that if a woman smokes during pregnancy the baby is much more likely to suffer from certain issues. This doesn't mean that every child will be affected in an obvious way. Maybe you and your friends escaped - but maybe you would have been even healthier if your mothers had been non-smokers.

Scary Pregnancy and Smoking Facts

The facts about pregnancy and smoking can be scary. The time when you are newly pregnant or thinking about starting a family is an excellent opportunity to stop smoking because you have this extra motivation. Your doctor and probably your family too will support you even more than they would at other times. Take some time to think about these risks if you are considering quitting.

The problems with pregnancy and smoking begin before you are even pregnant. Smoking affects fertility in both men and women. So if you both smoke and you want to start a family, it would be a great idea to quit together now.

How does smoking harm a fetus? From the moment of conception, the growing fetus is nourished by nutrients and oxygen passed to it in the mother's blood through the placenta. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in the blood and replaces it with poisonous carbon monoxide, so less oxygen reaches your baby. At the same time, some of the other toxins in smoke are carried in the bloodstream and can affect the healthy functioning of the placenta.

Because of these factors, there is more chance of something going wrong during the pregnancy. The issues with pregnancy and smoking mean that women who smoke are more likely to have a miscarriage or a baby who dies in the womb.

Facts about Pregnancy and Smoking

If the baby survives to birth, some of the effects of pregnancy and smoking on a newborn include

• lower birth weight


• more chance of premature birth


• twice the risk of sudden infant death syndrome ('cot death')


• twice as likely to be hospitalized in the first 8 months of life


• more likely to suffer from ear infections, bronchitis and other diseases.

Read more about pregnancy and smoking.....