The Effects of Smoking on the Unborn

The Effects of Smoking on the Unborn

There are many risk factors concerning the effects of smoking and the unborn. Medical evidence has established that smoking during pregnancy increases the risks of miscarriage, growth retardation, premature birth, low birth weight, and sometimes even death of the newborn. In April 1995, there was a published study of the effects of smoking during pregnancy that was conducted by the Journal of Family Practice. The study showed that smoking causes between 19,000 and 141,000 "spontaneous abortions" or miscarriages with an estimate of 115,000 per year. It has also been suggested that smoking is the cause of 14% of the pre-term births in the United States. The news, however, is not all bad because some studies show that a woman who stops smoking early in her pregnancy ( up to the fourth month period) can reduce the negative effects on the unborn fetus.

Some have asked, "If I have been smoking for ten years prior to my pregnancy, will it harm my baby?" The answer is "No", but smoking beyond the fourth month period of pregnancy is hazardous to the babies health. Babies of smoking mothers are more likely to suffer breathing lapses and are even more likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome.

A 1996 study linked smoking to retardation. The study showed that women who smoke during pregnancy were 50% more likely to have mentally retarded children. It also revealed that approximately 35% of the women who gave birth to retarted children reported smoking as few as five cigarettes a week during the pregnancy. You have probably wondered what kind of chemicals are in cigarettes that would cause such harm to the unborn fetus and how? The reason is, there are over four thousand substances found in tobacco smoke. Sixty of those substances are associated with cancer and tumor formation. Two of the four thousand considered to be the most dangerous are carbon monoxide and nicotine (tar). When the smoke is inhaled into a woman's lungs, all of the chemicals in the smoke is absorbed into her blood stream. The blood then flows through her veins and arteries, and if that isn't bad enough, carries the chemicals through the baby's umbilical chord and into the baby's blood stream. These hazardous chemicals can cause the following: miscarriages, retardation, sudden infant death syndrome, still births, premature deliveries, low birth weights, cot disease, and spontaneous abortions.

Smoking during pregnancy not only causes damage during pregnancy, but also further along. It could cause learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, and it gives the child a greater risk of developing asthma. Ted Slotkin, a Duke professor, has even made a case that cigarettes can even be a greater danger that crack cocaine because the nicotine damages the fetal brain at levels to low to cause underweight infants, which was the scientists theory before.

Did you know that cigarette smoking is the single most common cause of impaired fetal growth? One author even reported that the average weight deficits of newborns whose mothers were heavy smokers was 45.8 grams and that among the newborns whose mothers were exposed to passive smoke, the deficit was 19.2 grams. Smoking is the cause for as many as a third of all the babies who are born too small, which is a major cause of infant illness and perinatal death.

Smoking results in tens of thousands of admissions to the intensive care unit after birth and kills or damages the brain during birth.

Now that we have seen the bad things that can happen when smoking during pregnancy, lets look at the good things that will happen if one doesn't. The mother will experience a healthier pregnancy and the baby will grow better because it will be getting more food and oxygen.

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