It would seem that the obvious fact is considered that smoking is a bad habit that every person needs to get rid of.
So why do you have so many questions about smoking during pregnancy?
Why do some argue that smoking during pregnancy is possible, while others that are not, and which one is right?
Danger of smoking during pregnancy. Whether or not it is up to you!
Smoking definitely does not bode well. Nicotine kills thousands of lives annually. It is also scary that this happens not at one moment, but gradually, creating the illusion that the picture is not as critical as in reality.
It is terrible that women have become addicted to this addiction, but the fact that future mothers, taking a drag on their cigarettes, philosophically reflect on the question of whether or not to smoke during pregnancy, is equated with a disaster.
According to WHO, 30% of expectant mothers do not give up smoking, creating new statistics on the effect of smoking during pregnancy on the health of the child. Below is just a small list of pathologies that occur against the background of smoking.
• Spontaneous abortion. Among smokers of pregnant women, the number of miscarriages doubles compared with non-smokers. Depending on the number of cigarettes smoked and their quality, the number of spontaneous abortions can reach 80%. The reason lies in the incomparable amount of poison contained in cigarettes and the tiny body weight of an unborn baby. The famous phrase "a drop of nicotine kills a horse" must be remembered by women whenever they pick up a cigarette. If for an adult in one cigarette there is no dose that can instantly kill him, then for a tiny creation in the stomach, a few puffs made by his mother are enough.
• Perinatal mortality. Those babies who managed to survive in the womb of a smoking mother and be born into the world have a new test - 35% of them die before they reach the 7th day after birth for various reasons. Basically, they have developmental pathologies incompatible with life.
• Syndrome of sudden infant death in a newborn. This is the name of the case when a baby who is less than one year old and just stops breathing in his sleep. The respiratory arrest is due to a malfunction of the imperfect nervous system (including the autonomic), the development of which is greatly influenced by the inhalation of cigarette smoke by the mother, regardless of whether she smokes or is close to smokers.
• Intrauterine growth retardation. This is the name of the lag of the fetus in weight and size from the norm in terms of gestation. The easiest degree is a lag of 2 weeks from the minimum weight corresponding to the gestational age. For future mothers who smoke, this figure does not mean anything, but a few hundred grams for a newborn is a huge difference. A lagging baby spends all its few strengths on mass recovery, lagging behind peers in all respects of their psychological and physical development more and more.
• Placenta previa. The location of the placenta below the baby is a serious pathology and most often leads to miscarriage at an early stage or premature birth. Also, with placenta previa, its premature detachment is possible, which threatens fetal death in utero.
• Premature placental abruption. Detachment of the placenta in a smoking woman can occur at any time throughout pregnancy and even during childbirth. Regardless of the moment at which the pathology appeared, this process requires immediate medical attention, but it is often irreversible. When the placenta is detached from the uterine wall by a quarter of the total area, the child suffers from a severe lack of oxygen. With an increase in the area of detachment to a third, the fetus dies.
• Premature discharge of amniotic fluid. Throughout pregnancy, the fetus is protected by water from infection, it also allows the baby to breathe and move normally. In case of premature rupture of the fetal bladder and outflow of water outside, the child will die if it is not born in the next 12 hours. The further development of events depends on the time period for which the waters diverted. If this happened after 38 weeks, then the birth that has passed under the supervision of a doctor most often ends successfully, if the pregnancy is premature, then the fetus may die or be born with numerous pathologies.
Is it possible or not to quit smoking during pregnancy?
The opinion of doctors on this score is unambiguous. You need to quit smoking long before pregnancy or, if the pregnancy is unplanned, immediately as soon as it becomes known.
In women's forums on child bearing and motherhood, there are increasingly reports of the dangers of quitting smoking during pregnancy. This is explained by the stress that the mother experiences from a lack of nicotine and attempts to fight her bad habit, which in turn affects the development of the fetus and the well-being of the pregnancy.
If you understand this issue in more detail, then in fact the pregnant woman’s body does not experience more stress when quitting smoking than, for example, from standing in a long line or any other household inconvenience. The nicotine addiction of most women is also greatly exaggerated, because the smoking experience of many of them does not reach even 5 years. Even with longer smoking, it is enough to compare the stress in giving up a bad habit with the stress that a woman experiences, thinking about possible pathologies when smoking during pregnancy. Whether or not it is so irresponsible to approach the health of a small person, there should be no doubt. Such messages are a fictitious opinion that pregnant smokers use as an excuse.
Substitutes for cigarettes during pregnancy. Is it possible or not to use them?
Women who are not psychologically ready to quit smoking, but who understand the need for this, come up with various ways to do it smoothly. Advertising offers many means, substitutes for cigarettes, which, according to their manufacturers, are less harmful and will eventually get rid of addiction.
Tablets, patches, sprays, gum containing nicotine
All these drugs are strictly forbidden to use during pregnancy. The nicotine contained in them is quite enough to cause all the consequences that occur during smoking. The placenta can not filter nicotine, so it gets to the baby, causing oxygen starvation of the brain, developmental delay, causing nicotine dependence in the fetus. It is in women who smoke during pregnancy that most often arise in the future questions about the causes of child smoking.
E-Sigs
The principle of electronic cigarettes is not much different from the action of tablets and plasters. Despite the absence of an unpleasant smell of tobacco, electronic cigarette cartridges still contain nicotine, which has a detrimental effect on the health of the future mother and baby. Strictly speaking, replacing a regular electronic cigarette, a woman gets rid of only an unpleasant odor, but this has nothing to do with healing the body.
Hookah
In addition to nicotine, tobacco smoke contains heavy metals, carbon monoxide, arsenic and other harmful substances that poison the body. The information that the water through which smoke passes in a hookah cleans it is nothing more than a myth invented for advertising purposes. In addition, flavors, colorants and other chemicals are added to hookah tobacco to improve taste perception, resulting in a mixture that is strictly contraindicated for use by any person, especially a pregnant woman.
Stop smoking immediately and forever, or at least until the end of breastfeeding. This is the only way to protect your unborn child and keep him healthy. Any auxiliary means only take up valuable time during which irreversible consequences can occur, because all the main organ systems are laid in the first trimester, when for the fetus every day is a huge leap in development.
Psychological aspect: how easy is it to quit smoking during pregnancy?
It is proved that smoking causes primarily psychological dependence, and only in the second dependence on nicotine. Accordingly, it is necessary to cope with smoking precisely at the level of consciousness.
Doctors and scientists have written many books and brochures about the dangers of smoking. For pregnant women, all the consequences described in them (cancer, asthma, bronchitis, infertility, etc.) are also relevant, but first of all, the expectant mother should think about her baby. If for herself the danger of nicotine consumption is stretched in time, then for a child it is a matter of life and death for several weeks, maximum months. You need to act quickly and decisively.
Most people who want to quit smoking but do not do this have not actually made this decision consciously. As they were told by their friends in their teens that smoking is great, now other friends say the opposite. However, there was no personal opinion of the person who wants to quit smoking on this score, and no. The pregnant woman is pressured by public opinion, and she begins to hide from people or look for an excuse to continue to smoke during pregnancy. It is possible or not to continue to lead a habitual lifestyle, each expectant mother decides for herself and is obliged to bear responsibility for her act.
Unlike other people, a woman in a position has a huge advantage to quit smoking. From the most important witness of her weakness, she will never hide. For each puff in the future, she will have to pay, at best, sleepless nights at the bedside of a sick child. Awareness of this fact will help to quickly make a decision, because having decided to maintain pregnancy, the expectant mother assumes enormous responsibility in the future for the physical and moral health of her child. Already, she needs to decide which is more important: to smoke a cigarette (even if it brings momentary pleasure) or to enjoy her child’s successes all her life.
