Quit Smoking And Give Your Baby A Healthy Start

The Australian Government?s National Tobacco Campaign is currently working to reduce smoking rates among pregnant women and their partners in response to the fact that 14.5% of women are smoking during pregnancy.

As part of this campaign, we are here to assist you in dispelling common myths and to raise awareness about the serious health risks associated with smoking during pregnancy.

Please check this video, ?Smoking and pregnancy: What are the facts?? featuring Dr Deepa Daniel and Crystal, a young woman who quit smoking upon discovering she was pregnant.

Is It Safe To Smoke During Pregnancy?

Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including harmful substances like cyanide, lead, and at least 60 cancer-causing compounds. If you smoke or always exposed to second-hand smoke while pregnant, your blood and therefore your baby’s blood will contain less oxygen than normal. This can cause the foetal heart rate to rise as baby struggles to get enough oxygen.

How Will Smoking During Pregnancy Affect:

Babies

• This effect increases proportionally. The more you smoke, the less the child weighs. Your baby may have a birth weight on average 200g (7oz) less than those born to non-smokers.
• Babies get ill more frequently. Babies born to women who smoked 15 cigarettes or more a day during pregnancy are taken into hospital twice as often during the first eight months of life.
• Your baby may also get painful diseases such as inflammation of the middle ear and asthmatic bronchitis more frequently in early childhood.
• Vital body organs that is smaller on average than babies born to non-smokers.
• There seems to be a direct link between cot death and parents smoking.
• Your child is more likely to become a smoker in later years.
• May develop poorer lung function.

Mums

• Increased risk of preterm birth. Babies born prematurely can suffer more breathing problems and have long hospital stays among other health problems.
• Increased risk of placental abruption. This is when the placenta separates from the wall of the uterus, denying all oxygen to your baby.
• Increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth. Smoking is believed to be responsible for 115,000 miscarriages a year and 5,600 stillbirths.
• Increased risk of placenta previa, a dangerous condition whereby the placenta covers the cervix.
• Pregnant women who smoke increase their risk of early miscarriage.
• There is also an increased risk of an ectopic pregnancy.

Click the link to learn more about smoking during pregnancy.

Protecting your baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life. Talk to your midwife or doctor. They may be able to give you help and advice about avoiding second-hand smoke and/or give up smoking.

Quit smoking and give your baby a healthy start.

Do you have any experiences related to smoking during pregnancy? Please share it with us.