Smoking is a very harmful and very strong habit. Unfortunately, some women are not ready to give up cigarettes even during pregnancy, but it is smoking during pregnancy that poses the greatest danger to both the life of the fetus and the well-being of the expectant mother.
Unfortunately, pregnant women do not see cigarettes as a direct threat to the life and health of the child developing in the womb, and they consider the prohibitions of doctors to be an unnecessary precaution. So that you can assess the real scale of the problem, in this article we will talk about how smoking during pregnancy affects the fetus, the dangers of smoking during pregnancy, and how to quickly quit smoking during pregnancy.
Why you should quit smoking during pregnancy
There is a misconception that switching to light cigarettes during pregnancy can reduce the harmful effects of smoking on the fetus to a minimum. In fact, the dose of nicotine in light cigarettes is not much lower than in regular cigarettes, and the content of toxic tars and toxic compounds in tobacco smoke is almost the same.
Even if you smoke only 2-3 cigarettes a day, the resulting nicotine will be enough to endanger the life and health of your baby. Therefore, during pregnancy, it is important not to reduce the daily dose of nicotine consumed, but to completely stop smoking.
For many women, in order to understand why it is worth quitting smoking during pregnancy, it is important to understand exactly how maternal smoking affects the fetus. The tiny child inside a woman is defenseless - his fate depends entirely on the condition and lifestyle of his mother.
The harm of smoking in the first weeks of pregnancy is maximum - the placenta has not yet formed and is not ready to protect the fetus from toxins from the mother’s blood. When the formation of the placenta is completed, it becomes the only feeding artery and the main protector of the baby. But don’t think that smoking in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy is safe.
The placenta connects the maternal bloodstream with the fetal bloodstream, transferring nutrients from the woman's body to the baby while preventing the entry of most toxic compounds that can harm the fetus. However, when smoking, drinking alcohol or other harmful substances, the placenta cannot cope with so many toxins - as a result, the fetus and the placenta itself suffer.
Harm of smoking for pregnant women
It’s sad to say, but now in Russia there is a fairly large percentage of women of childbearing age who smoke.
What's even worse is that they don't realize the harm they cause to the fetus during pregnancy and don't stop smoking. And then, having started feeding, they do not give up the bad habit. They don't even want to hear about the dangers of smoking while breastfeeding. Not only that, during pregnancy the child suffered from a lack of oxygen and contaminated his body with harmful substances received from the mother. So now that he was born, he continued to receive his share of nicotine. So, is it any wonder that these children often get sick and do poorly at school? Every cigarette you smoke is a risk for pregnancy. A few cigarettes a day are safer than a whole pack, but the difference is not as big as you might think. The smoker's body is especially sensitive to the first doses of nicotine, and even one or two cigarettes will significantly constrict the blood vessels. This is why even a “weak” habit can have irreversible consequences for your child’s health. Despite all these grim statistics, you can give your child a huge gift and quit smoking - the sooner the better. Ideally, you should quit smoking before you become pregnant. Then your pregnancy will appear against a more favorable background. By the way, smoking reduces the chance of getting pregnant by 40%. You will no longer have to fight this bad habit during pregnancy, thereby leaving you with energy for more important things.
When you smoke during pregnancy, toxic mixtures enter the circulatory system - the only source of oxygen and nutrients for your baby. None of the components of cigarette smoke are good for babies, and nicotine and carbon monoxide are very harmful. These two toxins almost inevitably cause complications during pregnancy. The most serious complications - including a stillborn baby, premature birth, and low birth weight - occur because nicotine interferes with the delivery of oxygen to the blood. Nicotine “chokes” oxygen and constricts blood vessels throughout the body. This is akin to forcing your child to breathe through a straw. Red blood cells, instead of collecting oxygen, collect carbon dioxide. And all this certainly gets to the child.
Of course, not everyone knows how to plan far ahead. As practice shows, in most cases, pregnancy happens “suddenly” and takes expectant parents by surprise. By the time you find out about your interesting situation, the embryo is already 2 to 4 weeks old, and it has already received a considerable dose of nicotine. By the fourth week, the embryo has already begun to form a liver, kidneys, digestive tract, spine and brain. It is the development of the brain that suffers most from nicotine intoxication. If you are still smoking when you discover you are pregnant, you should immediately take steps to quit smoking. If you can quit this bad habit before 14 weeks, you have almost as much chance of having a healthy baby as any non-smoking mother.
After 14–16 weeks, the baby actively gains weight. If you continue to smoke during this period, your baby's height and weight will begin to lag. As soon as you quit, your baby will begin to receive oxygen and the weight will begin to increase. Even if you smoke at 30 weeks or later, you can still give your baby a few weeks to gain weight.
Quitting smoking... easy!
Many women, having quit smoking, still continue to worry that during the first weeks of pregnancy they poisoned their baby with tobacco. Don't panic, you have the power to minimize the impact of smoking on your pregnancy.
"I don't smoke anymore!"
Methods to combat smoking are currently varied: health education, special conversations with smokers, hypnotherapy, acupuncture, drug treatment with various drugs, various tablets, chewing gum, patches and inhalers containing nicotine. The effect of all methods is relatively modest - persistent smoking cessation for 2 years was observed in no more than 20% of smokers. However, these data relate to healthy people. Unfortunately, some incorrect statements are common about the supposedly harmful effects of abruptly stopping smoking on the body. This is an absolutely wrong argument to justify one's helplessness. Only a quick and decisive cessation of smoking ensures success in the quest to give up this bad habit. But it is also true that stopping smoking is sometimes accompanied by unpleasant but safe side effects: withdrawal syndrome develops, and weight may increase. At first, people suffering from withdrawal symptoms should be advised to take sedatives and sedatives. Some may gain weight after quitting smoking. Many people motivate their smoking cessation with this very consideration. In such cases, we can authoritatively state that even if this happens, gaining weight is incomparably less evil than continuing to smoke. You just need to follow a diet more carefully after giving up tobacco, limiting the total caloric intake of food; even without this, after 6 - 8 months the weight returns to its original weight. You can also prevent or combat weight gain with the help of physical education.
In some cases, if there are other smokers in the quitter's family, this makes it difficult to quit smoking permanently. Relatives of someone who quit smoking should also stop smoking. Family members, if they truly value their immediate family, must make this sacrifice. Otherwise, the smell of tobacco, inhalation of smoke, and the very sight of smoking items will lead to a return to smoking by the quitter.
Giving up bad habits is not easy - even if you know about all the dangers that await you. The craving for nicotine can kill any good intentions and be stronger than fear for the child. In this case, you should not fight smoking alone. Seek help from your doctor, ask for support and understanding from your loved ones, ask friends who were able to quit smoking how they did it. In the end, the life and health of your child primarily depends on you.
Almost any mentally healthy woman is able to give up this harmful habit. The hardest thing is the first day without cigarettes. You will have nowhere to put your hands, you will constantly want to eat, sleep and quickly get irritated over trifles. Nicotine addiction (unlike alcohol and drugs) is quite weak (regardless of the smoking experience). Psychologists say that if you endure 24 hours without cigarettes, you will no longer need them. The next day, anything will push you to cigarettes, just not nicotine addiction. Now the main thing is to understand why you need this. The incentives to pick up a cigarette can be very different: for company, the desire to fit into a “smoking” group, out of habit, the desire to take a spectacular pose, because there is nothing to do, because of nerves, etc. Every time your hand reaches for a cigarette, honestly ask yourself, “Why do I need this?” Having answered, come up with another, safer way to relieve irritation, relax or kill time.
Now on forums and on thematic websites you can find many discussions on the topic “Smoking and breastfeeding”. Of course, the only correct answer to this question is to quit smoking, and the sooner you do this, the better. The best thing is not to smoke at all, but if you smoke, try to quit in the first trimester of pregnancy; if that doesn’t work, be sure to quit before labor begins.
Nicotine and breast milk
Everyone has long known that “A drop of nicotine kills a horse.” Nicotine is a natural poison of tobacco, which with its help protects its existence from insects. Due to its properties, nicotine can penetrate into breast milk and remains there for about three hours after the last cigarette.
The lactation period of smoking mothers is lower than that of non-smoking mothers. This is due to the fact that smoking affects the body’s metabolic rates, the so-called wear and tear of the body. And in connection with this, the female body does not have enough energy to keep the amount of milk at the same level, it begins to decrease. It is recommended to eat properly to prolong the lactation period.
When smoking, the level of vitamin C in the chest drops because nicotine interferes with the good absorption of these vitamins. Lack of vitamins can affect the child.
Children from smoking mothers are more likely to develop sudden death syndrome, trophic disorders, and decreased immunity (they often get sick).
The influence of maternal smoking on the course of pregnancy and the fetus
Practice shows that smoking during pregnancy leads to a number of negative consequences:
- Placenta previa. In women who smoke, the placenta is often located too close to the os of the uterus (and sometimes partially or completely covers it), which threatens its detachment, premature birth, except for the option of natural birth, and severe labor bleeding. If placenta previa in a smoking woman is not diagnosed in a timely manner or is detected only during childbirth, it can cause the death of the mother and fetus.
- Violation of the form and functions of the placenta. In women who smoke, the placenta changes – it becomes less elastic and more round. The natural blood flow in it is disrupted, which harms the nutrition of the fetus and its provision of oxygen. Fetal hypoxia is observed much more often in smoking women than in non-smoking pregnant women.
- Premature aging of the placenta and its pinpoint or extensive infarctions. Smoking during pregnancy greatly increases the risk of premature aging of the placenta. In addition, placental infarction in women who smoke is quite common, while this problem is extremely rare in non-smoking pregnant women.
- Spontaneous miscarriage, premature birth, intrauterine fetal death. Smoking during pregnancy most often causes miscarriages or premature births. The influence of toxins on a defenseless child and a serious disruption of placental metabolism due to smoking during pregnancy leads to intrauterine fetal death.
- Low birth weight children. If the expectant mother was unable to quit smoking during pregnancy, her baby is likely to be born with low body weight, but it is the baby's body weight at birth that often determines its viability and health status.
- Intrauterine developmental defects. Smoking during pregnancy greatly increases the risk of developing serious pathologies in the fetus. Among such pathologies, the most common are: heart problems, disorders in the formation of the bone apparatus, diseases of the liver and other organs.
- Inhibition of intellectual development, psychological deviations, and a tendency toward nicotine addiction in a child are all consequences of smoking during pregnancy. In addition, children born to a smoking mother are more likely than others to have learning problems - they perceive information worse, are difficult to discipline, and show absent-mindedness and lack of concentration. In addition, such children more often suffer from nervous excitability and experience difficulties communicating with peers and elders.
Long-term consequences of smoking for a child
WHO experts and pediatricians from the UK and USA analyzed the physical health and mental development of children born to smoking mothers. They compared them with the guys from the control group and found:
- the presence of neurological abnormalities (changes in the EEG, behavioral disorders, attention);
- hyperactivity syndrome is much more common;
- children fall behind in the exact sciences in primary school and have difficulty learning to read;
- show worse results in psychological tests, adapt poorly to stress;
- are lagging behind their peers in height (by 1 cm or more);
- often seek medical help for respiratory diseases, including bronchial asthma.
Some sources indicate that smoking during pregnancy increases the likelihood of developing autism by 30-40%. British scientists emphasize that both active and passive smokers are at risk, but a direct connection between cigarettes and mental disorder has not yet been established.
Continuing a bad habit during breastfeeding also threatens the child’s health. Harmful components get into milk. Nicotine leads to the formation of addiction and has a toxic effect on the nervous system, disrupting its further development. Other ingredients of the tobacco “cocktail” increase the risk of malignant tumors, respiratory pathologies, allergic and systemic diseases. We should not forget that such babies remain at risk of sudden death. Smoking also reduces milk production.
Is it true that a woman who has been smoking for a long time should not quit smoking during pregnancy?
Many women who smoke reassure themselves that they cannot quit smoking because their nicotine addiction is too strong. Surprisingly, many doctors also think so. Allegedly, quitting smoking in this case becomes a cause of severe stress and a threat to pregnancy.
However, the negative impact of stress on the fetus is negligible compared to the harm caused to the unborn child by regular use of nicotine, so quitting smoking during pregnancy is mandatory - no matter how long you have been smoking.
The myth proclaiming that a woman who has been smoking for a long time during pregnancy should not give up cigarettes was invented by weak-willed ladies who do not care about the health of their unborn children. A woman who cares about the life and health of her baby will always find the courage to at least temporarily give up a dangerous habit.
How to quit smoking during pregnancy
There are many ways available to the average person to quit smoking - most of them are based on gradually reducing the daily dose of nicotine. However, when a woman who smokes finds out that she is pregnant, she should give up cigarettes completely as soon as possible.
The sooner an expectant mother quits smoking, the higher her chances of a full-term pregnancy and the birth of a physically and mentally healthy baby. Obviously, methods for phasing out cigarettes during pregnancy are applicable.
It is necessary to consult with a gynecologist or a psychiatrist-narcologist, since different recommendations may be given depending on the duration of pregnancy and the duration of nicotine addiction.
For example, during pregnancy, nicotine chewing gum and patches are completely excluded. Quitting smoking during pregnancy using an electronic cigarette is also not recommended - smoking liquids contain high doses of nicotine. In addition, the technology for the production of electronic cigarettes and liquids for them is still poorly studied and not certified, so the use of carcinogens is possible.
It turns out that during pregnancy there is only one way to quit smoking - throw away all the cigarettes and be patient. It’s hard to imagine that a happy expectant mother might not have enough willpower to quit smoking in order to give birth to a healthy baby.
Those who quit smoking are usually pushed back to cigarettes by boredom, and pregnant women have a great advantage in this regard - the period of pregnancy (especially the first) is always very full of new positive sensations, experiences, pleasant shopping, communication, meeting new interesting people.
What if you smoke a little during pregnancy?
Many pregnant women who smoke try to stick to the “golden mean” - reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke to a minimum, but at the same time continue to smoke until the birth. But is such a measure enough?
Of course, if you smoke very little during pregnancy, the child will receive much less nicotine, but... Firstly, this amount of nicotine is enough to lead to disruption of the placenta, cause fetal hypoxia or various developmental defects. Secondly, there is a high probability that the newborn will inherit nicotine addiction from a smoking mother. Thirdly, the expectant mother and fetus will be subjected to severe stress every day - the woman will be nervous for hours waiting for a “legal” smoking break.
Therefore, do not ask your gynecologist if you can smoke a little during pregnancy. Whatever his answer, it will not cancel the harmful effects of even small doses of nicotine on your baby.
How does alcohol affect conception?
Violation of oogenesis and pathologies of the reproductive system are typical for women who drink alcohol before conception.
The risks are as follows:
- Genetic defects of the fetus
- The embryo cannot attach to the endometrium
- Conception does not occur due to hormonal imbalances
- Formation of deformities in the fetus
In men, under the influence of alcohol, spermatogenesis is disrupted, increasing the risk of producing defective sperm. This will lead to the development of a fetus with genetic disorders. This is especially true for beer, which contains phytoestrogens.
