The Many Adverse Health Effects That are Associated With Smoking

It is no shock to anyone that a woman should never smoke while she is pregnant. Cigarette smoke and tobacco products contain substances that can cause a fetus irreparable damage. In the following article, we will review more important information about the adverse health effects that come with smoking.

There are a myriad of different health defects that can be attributed to smoking while pregnant. Low-birth weight in babies is one of the main defects that is often seen. Low-birth weight can lead to diverse infant disease, disability and still born children. If you smoke while pregnant, your baby is very likely to be under weight and may suffer from any of the other latter ailments or worse. Cigarette smoke itself contains more than twenty five hundred chemicals. None of these chemicals are beneficial to the health of the mother or the baby. Developing fetuses have no use for any of the chemicals that are found in cigarette smoke or other tobacco products. By smoking one to nine cigarettes during the course of a day, the mother is quadrupling the chance that her child will have birth defects caused by smoking. If a mother smokes twenty or more cigarettes per day, this increases the chance of birth defects eight fold. Smoking while pregnant may also lead to placenta abruption, placenta previa, sudden infant death syndrome or colic. Placenta abruption is a condition where the placenta pushes off the wall of the uterus before labor or during labor. This will cause the need for premature delivery, usually through a Caesarian. Placenta previa is caused when smoking thins the placenta during pregnancy. It will then cover the opening of the cervix, which can also lead to risky natural birth. A Caesarian may be in order when this happens as well. Sudden infant death syndrome is a mystery to science in some ways, but smoking while pregnant has been proven to cause this serious, condition. Colic is also a symptom of a baby whose mother smoked a lot while she was pregnant. As you can see, smoking is one of the worse things you can do if you are pregnant. The list of adverse health effects on your baby should be enough to convince you not to smoke while you are pregnant.



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