Pregnancy, Baby and Smoking Facts

Posted by: Indonesian Children | October 31, 2010

Pregnancy, Baby and Smoking Facts

Smoking while pregnant increases the chances of spontaneous abortions (miscarriages) stillbirths and premature labor.
Women who smoke have higher risks of giving birth to babies with birth defects or abnormalities.
In 2002, 11.4 percent of mothers smoked during pregnancy.
Mothers who smoke can pass nicotine to their children through breast milk.
Infants born to mothers who smoke are more likely to develop colds, bronchitis, and other respiratory diseases such as asthma. The odds of developing asthma are twice as high among children whose mothers smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day.
Smoking More than half a pack a day may cause infertility or irregular menstrual cycles in women.
Menopause often occurs earlier in women who smoke than in women who do not.
Pregnant women pass any chemicals they take in (from food, tobacco, alcohol and so on) to their unborn children through the placenta.
Women who smoke during pregnancy can slow down the baby’s growth by reducing the amount of oxygen and increasing the amount of carbon monoxide that the baby receives during a critical time when its brain and nervous system are developing.
Babies born of mothers who smoke frequently during pregnancy are on the average 7 ounces lighter than other babies.

Many Australian women who smoke don’t quit during pregnancy, a study shows, and when they cut back it’s only by a couple of cigarettes a day. Queensland researchers studied the smoking prevalence among a group of more than 260 pregnant women at an antenatal clinic. They found 37 per cent of the women were smokers before they fell pregnant, and this declined to about 25 per cent once they became aware of their condition.

Women who smoked heavily during pregnancy had the most difficult infants
For women struggling to quit smoking during pregnancy, this could be the clincher. Giving up cigarettes not only improves mother and child’s physical health, it also makes it more likely the baby will have a sunnier nature, with regular sleeping and eating patterns.
The babies of recent quitters were even more easy-going than those born to women who had never smoked or had stopped years earlier. A possible explanation for quitters having better behaved children than non-smokers. Women who are strongly motivated to give up smoking in pregnancy are very positive about the decision and the outcomes for the baby.
The first evidence of the impact on babies’ behaviour of stopping smoking in early pregnancy.
Although the risks to physical health caused by mothers’ smoking have been well-documented, data on their babies’ mental well-being has been scarce. The study of 18,000 British children at the age of nine months found women who smoke heavily in pregnancy – more than ten cigarettes a day – had the most difficult infants with the worst moods. Mothers themselves picked up these differences, with the babies of quitters having the most positive temperaments.It’s an extra incentive to give up smoking in pregnancy.” The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, assessed infants’ temperaments with scales designed to pick up positive mood, receptivity to new things, and eating and sleeping patterns.Around 4,000 women involved in the 2000-02 study continued to smoke while expecting.
Chemicals from cigarettes are known to harm the development of the brains of babies in the womb. They are also linked to low birth weight, birth defects and increased risk of cot death.

Smoking during pregnancy acts like a dual risk in respect of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) – as it not only does raise a mother’s likelihood of having a preterm baby, but it also increases the infant’s susceptibility to SIDS further, according to a new study. The study found that smoking not only does raises a mother’s likelihood of having a preterm baby, who is already among the most vulnerable to SIDS, but also increases the infant’s susceptibility to SIDS even further.

A researcher at Women & Infants Hospital looked at the connection between smoking during pregnancy and the effect it has on that mother’s baby through the age of 12.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention links smoking during pregnancy to prematurity and a higher risk of sudden infant death syndrome.
But new research done by Dr. Kristen Stone of Women & Infants Hospital shows it can also affect a child’s sleep.

Provided by

Dr Widodo Judarwanto, pediatricia
SAVE OUR CHILDREN FROM SMOKE, Yudhasmara Foundation
Working together make a smoke-free homes and smoke-free zones for all children

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