Many pregnant women, who find it hard to go without a puff, are guilty of smoking despite knowing all the harmful effects it has on their unborn baby.
Not giving up cigarettes, however, can have long-term adverse effects on your future baby’s health and development. Quitting, as we know, benefits the body and mind.
The number of maternal smokers who smoke and endanger the health of their unborn babies is troubling. The 2011 Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System (PRAMS), which collates data from 24 states in the US, shows that about 10% of women smoke during the last trimester of their pregnancies.
Approximately 55% of them stop when they find out that they are pregnant. Unfortunately, about 40% of the women who quit start smoking again within six months of their children’s births.
So, how does cigarette smoke jeopardize an unborn baby’s health? Here’s some insight from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
First of all, smoking while pregnant may damage cells, particularly to those in the lung and brain. Research points to links between maternal smoking and babies with cleft lips.
Maternal smoking may also trigger stillbirths. Tobacco has carbon monoxide, which prevents a baby from getting oxygen. Of course, it also contains chemicals that harm unborn babies.
Research shows that mothers who smoke are more likely than those who don’t give birth prematurely. Furthermore, preterm births often lead to death, disease, and disability, according to studies.
Statistics show that one in every five babies born to pregnant smokers is underweight. Mothers who inhale secondhand smoke are also likely to have babies with low birth weights. Moreover, research proves that these babies are not healthy.
Besides, these findings show that babies born to mothers who smoke or had exposure to secondhand smoke are three times more prone to SIDS than other babies.
The same studies also show that mothers who smoked while pregnant or who had secondhand exposure to smoke gave birth to babies with weak lungs. That creates many health concerns.
Babies born to mothers who smoked during the first trimesters of their pregnancies were likely to have heart defects. A study by the CDC showed that these babies were 20 to 70% more likely than those who were born to non-smoking mothers to have problems with right ventricular flow. They also developed obstructions in the upper chambers of the heart.
Not smoking will enhance your well being as well as your baby’s. Here’s how.
In all, every pregnant woman should seriously consider quitting smoking as it is a boon for her health and her young ones.
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