More Reasons to Quit Smoking
Recently, a pregnant cashier raced back to her post after a smoke break and explained to her customer that she was sneaking cigarettes when the baby’s father would not notice. She seemed oblivious to the harm her addiction could be causing the child.
But now there is a new way for mothers to gently break the cigarette habit, and it comes at a time when medical experts are finding increasingly alarming reasons for pregnant women to wean themselves from nicotine and tobacco.
Some studies indicate that smoking can as much as double a woman’s risk for having a low-birthweight baby. This occurs either due to the increased risk of preterm delivery or to poor fetal growth or both, caused by smoking. Low-birthweight babies are at risk of serious problems including cerebral palsy, mental retardation and learning problems. Smoking may lead to an increased risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) after birth.
According to the Center for Disease Control, the chances of pre-term delivery, or any birth before 37 weeks, are much higher in women who smoke during their pregnancy. Babies who are born that early in the pregnancy are at a much higher risk for developmental disabilities while in the womb. This is because the chemicals in cigarette smoke can cause the mother to go into pregnancy before all the essential systems have had time to develop completely. Low birth weight can also increase the chances of early infant death or even death of the baby while still in the womb.
The medical journal “Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery” reported that smoking leads to an increased risk of having babies with webbed fingers and toes, and missing or extra fingers and toes. The study concluded that smoking half a pack a day increased the risk of having a baby with digit abnormalities by 29 percent. The study, which looked at live births in the United States in 2001 and 2002, recorded 5,171 infants with such defects.
Additional cigarettes bring even more alarming results, increasing the child’s risk by as much as 78 percent. These defects can lead to surgery and other unwanted complications for the infant.
When the mother smokes, so does the baby. Poisons such as nicotine get into the placenta, which connects the mother to the unborn baby. The placenta then becomes thinner, trying to spread to other areas of the uterus which may have more oxygen and nutrients. The thinning of the placenta can cause pre-term labor or placenta previa, a condition where the placenta covers the cervix.
Why in the world would someone risk the health of her baby? Addiction is many times defined as insanity.
