Smoking in 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.
When you smoke tobacco or breathe in cigarette smoke, carbon monoxide, nicotine and other poisons pass into your lungs and restrict the essential oxygen supply to your baby.
This makes their heart beat faster and affects their growth. The toxic chemicals also cross the placenta directly into the baby’s blood stream – so the baby smokes with you.
Smoking during pregnancy has been linked to poor health for both mother and baby.
The mother can suffer from:
· Miscarriage
· Bleeding
· Nausea
The baby can suffer from:
· Slow growth
· Premature birth
· Still birth
· Low birth weight
· Cot death
· Breezing problems and wheezing in the first six months of life
The sooner you stop smoking the better for your baby and for you. Women who stop smoking during pregnancy have less morning sickness and fewer complications. But it’s never too late – even stopping in the last few weeks of pregnancy can be beneficial.
If your partner or anyone else who lives with you smokes, their smoke can also affect you and the baby, both before and after the birth. They can help you and the baby by giving up now.
There are many NHS stop smoking services available across Coventry and you are four times more likely to quit by using NHS support rather going it alone.
For details of services which specialise in helping pregnant mothers to stop smoking, go to www.coventry.nhs.uk/YourHealth/StopSmoking/StopSmokinginPregnancyServices