Smoking during pregnancy is dangerous. Yet many smokers still do not seem to fully understand it. Why else would so many people search online for advice and ask questions like “How dangerous is smoking during pregnancy really?” or “Until when is smoking during pregnancy harmless?” The answer fits into one sentence: smoking is always dangerous – and from the first day of your pregnancy, you endanger not only yourself but also your unborn child.
If you are pregnant and smoke, the consequences can be serious. But how can I move away from smoking during pregnancy, and what exactly does smoking during pregnancy do? We have the answers.
Should you move away from smoking immediately when you are pregnant? Yes.
Stopping Smoking During Pregnancy
Smoking during pregnancy is dangerous. It harms not only the mother, but also the baby. Why is smoking during pregnancy dangerous? The smoke from a nicotine cigarette contains more than 4,000 toxic substances. If you cannot move away from smoking, part of the reason may be that you have not yet found the reason that really lands.
Putting yourself at risk is one thing, but exposing another living being to harmful smoke should be the final push. You are now responsible for a child. Should you move away from smoking immediately during pregnancy? Yes, absolutely. Every day counts.
What Are the Consequences of Smoking During Pregnancy?
It is not only your child who is affected; smoking during pregnancy is also more dangerous than usual for the mother. Pregnant women have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Smoking also increases the risk of a heart attack and leads to high blood pressure. The latter in particular can cause complications during pregnancy, including:
- Premature birth
- Miscarriage
- Stillbirth
- Rupture of membranes
- Ectopic or abdominal pregnancy
- Premature placental abruption
The development of the embryo is also disrupted by smoking during pregnancy. The embryo reacts to all substances it receives through the mother. When you take a drag from a cigarette, your baby is exposed too. Harmful carbon monoxide displaces oxygen in the mother’s bloodstream, which also worsens blood supply to the placenta.
Alcohol and smoking during pregnancy should be strictly avoided
What happens when you smoke during pregnancy? Quite simply: when the baby’s supply of oxygen and nutrients drops, the risk of malformations caused by smoking during pregnancy increases. Developmental harm can also result.
Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are often smaller, less developed and sometimes have reduced lung function. The risk of sudden infant death is also increased. In early childhood, children can develop illnesses. Consequences for the child from smoking during pregnancy can include:
- Allergies
- Asthma
- Infectious diseases
- ADHD
- Infertility
- Excess weight
Every cigarette harms the child. You should therefore avoid smoking completely as soon as you know you are pregnant. The father should also move away from smoking. Harmful substances can reach the child through secondhand smoke as well. Ask your housemates, family and friends not to smoke around you anymore.
Ending Smoking During Pregnancy
If you are pregnant, you should take it as the moment to move away from smoking. You are in good company: around one third of all pregnant women who smoke stop immediately or within a few weeks after learning they are pregnant. So it is possible.
Unfortunately, the other two thirds of pregnant smokers simply continue. The good news is that the risk of illness still drops if you move away from smoking within the first three months of pregnancy. Of course, the rule remains: the earlier, the better.
You can get help, for example, from Iris, a project supported by the German Federal Ministry of Health (http://www.iris-plattform.de/). It offers free and anonymous support if you want to move away from smoking during pregnancy.
Replacing nicotine with products such as nicotine patches is often not very successful. If you smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day, nicotine patches may still be better than smoking, but they are not healthy. The same applies to herbal cigarettes and tobacco substitute. Although these products do not contain the same harmful substances, you should still try to move away from smoking completely during pregnancy.
Not only the mother, but also the father should move away from smoking during pregnancy
Stopping Smoking During Pregnancy – Withdrawal Symptoms for the Child?
You are pregnant and want to move away from smoking, but after just a few days you notice withdrawal symptoms. You feel unwell. Can these withdrawal symptoms affect your unborn child? No, you do not need to worry about that.
On the contrary: every day you no longer smoke is good for your baby. You reduce health risks for the child and do something positive for them. You should also avoid smoking after birth, because harmful substances can also be passed on during breastfeeding.
Smoking and Getting Pregnant – An Obstacle?
The more heavily you smoke, the lower your chances of becoming pregnant. Fertility is even affected by secondhand smoke. It is not only women who should move away from smoking when trying for a child; men should too, because smoking damages sperm. During fertilization, this can even lead to malformations in the embryo.
If you want to have a child, you and your partner should move away from smoking immediately. Herbal cigarettes without nicotine are an alternative if you want to move away from smoking. Before pregnancy, herbal cigarettes are certainly better than nicotine cigarettes. As soon as you are pregnant, however, you should avoid smoking completely if possible, and that includes herbal cigarettes.
Conclusion
When does smoking during pregnancy become dangerous? The answer is: from day one. Even if you want to become pregnant, smoking can negatively affect your fertility. That is why you should avoid smoking during pregnancy – just like alcohol – in every case.
