Are you smoking while you are pregnant? When smoking during pregnancy you can harm the health of both yourself and the baby you are carrying. It is important to quit smoking not only for your health but more importantly for the health of your unborn child. Cigarette smoke contains over 2,000 chemicals that can potentially harm the fetus. Nicotine and carbon monoxide in cigarettes cause the most damage.
How can smoking harm my unborn child?
Smoking greatly increases the risk of delivering a low-birth weight baby. In a study performed in 2004, 11.9 percent of babies born to smoking mothers suffered from low birth weight. It has been known for a long time that smoking slows fetal growth. The more that a pregnant mother smoker the greater the chance her child will suffer from low-birth weight. Smoking can also increase the chance of preterm delivery.
Keep in mind that if you continue to smoke through your pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby that smoking is also dangerous to your newborn child. Babies exposed to cigarette smoke face increased risks of asthma, upper respiratory infections, and even SIDS (or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome).
Click here to read more about being pregnant when smoking and how it can harm your unborn child.
No comments:
Post a Comment