Smoking Cigarettes and the Unborn Baby
Part II

Last month Dr. Susan Osborne knowledgably addressed this question for us.  She shared a substantial amount of information lending critical information to help  educate our clients and friends.   Thank-you Dr. Osborne!  This month we are going to continue.

Smoking and Pregnancy

Cigarette smoking during pregnancy can cause serious health problems to an unborn child. Smoking during pregnancy has been linked to premature labor, breathing problems, and fatal illness among infants.

An estimated 430,700 Americans die each year from diseases caused by smoking. Smoking is responsible for an estimated one in five U.S. deaths and costs the U.S. at least $97.2 billion each year in health care costs and lost productivity.

Similar to the use of psychiatric medicines during pregnancy, smoking during pregnancy is estimated to account for 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries, and some 10 percent of all infant deaths. Maternal smoking during and after pregnancy has been linked to asthma among infants and young children. In 1996, 13.6 percent of mothers were reported to have smoked during pregnancy.

Smokers inhale nicotine and carbon monoxide, which reach the baby through the placenta and prevent the fetus from getting the nutrients and oxygen needed to grow. Secondhand smoke also adds a risk to pregnancy. Breast milk often contains whatever is in the woman's body. If the woman smokes, the baby ingests the nicotine in her breast milk.

Reducing frequency of smoking may not benefit the baby. A pregnant woman who reduces her smoking pattern or switches to lower tar cigarettes may inhale more deeply or take more puffs to get the same amount of nicotine as before.

The most effective way to protect the fetus is to quit smoking. If a woman plans to conceive a child in the near future, quitting is essential. A woman who quits within the first three or four months of pregnancy can lower the chances of her baby being born premature or with health problems related to smoking. Pregnancy is a great time for a woman to quit. No matter how long she has been smoking, her body benefits from her quitting because it lessens her chances of developing future tobacco-related health problems, such as lung and heart disease, and cancer.

Source: American Lung Association Fact Sheet, "Smoking and Pregnancy," September 1999

Remember that smoking affects you AND your baby!

The following are just some of the horrible effects smoking in pregnancy can have on your baby:

Lower birth weight. Smoking reduces the amount of blood that reaches your placenta starving your baby of the food it needs to grow strong.  Smoking makes it harder to get pregnant in the first place by lowering your fertility.  Once pregnant, smoking makes miscarriages more likely.  After birth, babies born to smoking mothers cry more as they crave the nicotine you do in cigarette smoke.  Babies born to smoking mothers are more likely to die unexplained (SIDS), and to suffer from asthma and ear infections when older.
Children of smoking parents are more likely to smoke too as well as have a higher rate of disease just from exposure in utero alone.

Smoking can cause placenta previa (Dangerous situation where the placenta covers the cervix.)

It can cause a placental abruption (Where the placenta separates from the wall of the uterus denying all oxygen to your baby.)

It increases your risk of a preterm birth. Babies born too early can suffer more breathing problems and have long hospital stays.

It increases the chances of your baby learning difficulties as a child.

There is a higher incidence of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS or crib death) in babies born to mothers who smoked or who are exposed to second hand smoke after birth.)
Now we even know that babies who have been exposed to smoking in the womb, even second hand smoke, have more genetic defects.

What happens is as the woman smokes the baby and the placenta are deprived of oxygen and nutrients. The placenta then spreads further throughout the uterus, becoming thinner (increasing the risks of a placenta previa and placental abruption), trying to seek out more surface area of the uterus from which to draw oxygen and nutrient.

Because of this depravation, the baby will tend to be smaller (low birth weight), which is associated with many problems of the baby, including poor lung functioning. This can also lead to preterm labor or premature rupture of the membranes, because the body feels that the baby can no longer be fed properly.


The Harmful Chemicals in Tobacco Smoke

Each puff of cigarette smoke has in over 4000 chemicals, 40 of which we know cause cancer!!!
And did you know that Nicotine, the addictive ingredient of cigarettes is used in agriculture as an insect killer?

Each drag you take on a cigarette also has in the following household chemicals you may find familiar:

Acetone = Wall paint stripper.
Arsenic = Ant poison.
Ammonia = Floor and toilet cleaner.
Butane = Lighter fluid.
Carbon Monoxide = Car exhaust.
DDT = Insecticide.
Methanol = NASA fuel.
Naphthalene = Moth balls.
Nicotine = Insecticide and weed killer.
Vinyl Chloride = PVC pipes.

Information compiled by Susan Oshel, CPM

Note from Susan Oshel:  Over the years my personal observation of  Dr. Osborne's gift in teaching and helping people cease smoking has enriched my own education as a Health Care Provider. Seems fitting that my additions in  Part II of Smoking During Pregnancy follows Dr. Osborne's intro in Part I.