Quit Smoking Before Becoming Pregnant
By:
Dr Jenny Tylee
In the United States more than 20 percent
of women smoke and many of these women smoke while they are
pregnant. Smoking can harm a woman’s health and smoking during
pregnancy can lead to pregnancy complications and serious health
problems in newborns. The more a pregnant woman smokes, the
greater the risk to her baby. However, if a woman
stops
smoking by the end of her first trimester of
pregnancy, she is no more likely to have a low birth weight baby
than a woman who never smoked. Even stopping during the third
trimester can still improve the baby’s growth.
The problems with smoking during pregnancy include:
• Risks to the baby
o Low birth weight (less than 2,500 grams) carries a range of
grave health risks for children. Babies who were undernourished
in the womb face a greatly increased risk of dying during their
early months and years. Those who survive have impaired immune
function and increased risk of disease; they are likely to
remain undernourished, with reduced muscle strength, throughout
their lives, and suffer a higher incidence of
diabetes and heart disease in later life.
Children born underweight also tend to have a lower IQ and
cognitive disabilities, affecting their performance in school
and their job opportunities as adults.
o Premature birth – less than 37 weeks of gestation.
o Miscarriage and stillbirths
o Learning and behaviour problems – associated with premature
birth and low birth weight.
o Increased incidence of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome)
o May undergo withdrawal-like symptoms. The babies appear to be
more jittery and difficult to soothe than babies of non-smokers
o Suffer from more lower-respiratory illnesses (such as
bronchitis and pneumonia) and ear infections than other babies.
o Some kinds of birth defects, particularly cleft lip and cleft
palate (abnormalities of the mouth that need to be corrected by
surgery).
•
Pregnancy complications
o Placental problems - including placenta previa (low-lying
placenta that covers part or all of the opening of the uterus)
and placental abruption (in which the placenta peels away,
partially or almost completely, from the uterine wall before
delivery). Both can result in heavy bleeding during delivery
that can endanger mother and baby.
o Premature rupture of the membranes (PROM) (when the sac inside
the uterus that holds the baby breaks before labor begins). When
this occurs before 37 weeks of pregnancy it often results in the
birth of a premature baby.
Smoking also affects the reproduction before a woman becomes
pregnant. Smoker can have more trouble conceiving than
non-smokers with fertility being 30% lower. However, fertility
returns to normal after a woman stops smoking. Men also have
fertility problems associated with smoking. They have:
• reduced ejaculation volume,
• a reduced
sperm
count,
• the sperm motility is impaired,
• increased sperm shape abnormalities and
• the sperm are less able to penetrate the ovum.
The sperm related problems can take three months to correct. It
is suggested therefore that males quit smoking at least three
months before trying to conceive.
The good news is that the problems in pregnancy can be overcome
by quitting smoking. This is best undertaken before the
pregnancy – but stopping at any stage during the pregnancy will
have a benefit for the mother and baby. If you are pregnant or
are wanting to become pregnant then now is the time to stop.
Join growerz.com and get the assistance and support you need to
successfully quit – for the sake of a healthy baby.
References
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Smoking
Cessation during Pregnancy. ACOG Educational
Bulletin, number 260, September 2000.
Law, K.L., et al. Smoking During Pregnancy and Newborn
Neurobehavior. Pediatrics, volume 111, number 6, June 2003,
pages 1318-1323.
Martin, J.A., et al. Births: Final Data for 2002. National Vital
Statistics Reports, volume 52, number 10, December 17, 2003.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health
Consequences of Smoking: A Report of the Surgeon General—2004.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office on Smoking
and Health, Atlanta Georgia, May 2004.
Wang, X., et al. Maternal
Cigarette
Smoking, Metabolic Gene Polymorphism, and
Infant Birth Weight. Journal of the American Medical
Association, volume 287, number 2, January 9, 2002, pages
195-202.
Article
Source: http://www.articlerich.com
Dr Jenny Tylee is an
experienced health professional who encourages people to
quit smoking. She owns
Health Product Site
safe colon cleansing.
