Many people are aware of the dangers of smoking and being exposed to second hand smoke. It’s reasonable that the dangers of smoking during pregnancy will affect the unborn baby as well. Yes, there have been studies and research performed on the subject. The studies linked correlations between smoking and non-smoking pregnancies and the effects on the babies. Many medical problems have been positively correlated with smoking while pregnant. Being exposed to second hand smoke was just as unhealthy for the unborn baby. The rest of this article will deal with several serious and dangerous consequences for the baby when the mother smokes while pregnant.
When you smoke so does your baby.
So while you are inhaling the hundreds of chemicals added to tobacco, including carbon monoxide and nicotine, your baby is absorbing them. The placenta is what filters all the nourishment for your baby, which means that if you are smoking so is your baby. Carcinogens are poison.
Each year a certain percentage of pregnancies result in ectopic pregnancies. When an embryo gets implanted in the fallopian tube instead of the uterus, that is an ectopic pregnancy. Ectopic pregnancies can result in all kinds of serious complications. As you may imagine, already, women who smoke while pregnant have a significant risk of an ectopic pregnancy. Additionally, there are risks that can negatively impact the placenta when there is smoking during pregnancy. These are serious health risks for both the mother and the fetus.
While a significant percentage of low birth weight newborns is blamed on the mother smoking while pregnant, there are quite a few additional risks. Some of the additional risks include but are not limited to mental retardation, difficulty learning and cerebral palsy. Smoking while pregnant has been shown to contribute to the enormous amount of sudden death cases in infants.
There is tremendous cause for concern when a mother smokes during pregnancy.
The negative effects of smoking on her baby are numerous and are not completely understood. This article has focused mainly on the effects on the unborn baby but these same effects don’t go away after birth. These far reaching consequences can stay with the child far into adulthood. Your child could have to deal with the dire consequences of you smoking while pregnant for their entire life. Quitting smoking is vital to the baby and the mother for this reason.
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