How does smoking affect pregnancy?

A factor that is perhaps the greatest danger to the health of a child developing in the womb is smoking. This is due to the fact that during pregnancy a large number of other harmful substances, including carbon monoxide and tar, penetrate the body of the expectant mother at the same time as nicotine.

Everyone is well aware of the dangers of smoking. But according to statistics, the number of women having this bad habit does not decrease, but rather increases, while the age at which girls start smoking decreases. What should a pregnant woman do if she is addicted to nicotine. There can be no compromise in this case - it is necessary to abandon the addiction in the very near future. Of course, each person has the right to independently make such decisions and bear responsibility for his health and for his unborn child. However, it is still worth weighing everything carefully, having learned what effect smoking has on pregnancy. This information should help the expectant mother correctly prioritize and easily take the first step in a new life, forgetting the addiction.

What is the effect of smoking on pregnancy?

Scientists in many countries conducted a huge number of studies aimed at determining the effects of addictions on the development of pregnancy and the formation of the fetus in the mother’s womb. The results of each of them confirmed that smoking has a negative effect on nicotine on the pregnant woman and her offspring: the body of the expectant mother suffers from suffering, in which global restructuring is already taking place, the proper intrauterine formation of the fetus is at risk, and the risk of developing abnormalities in the infant is increased.

At the moment when the expectant mother takes a puff of nicotine, a cloud of smoke envelops the baby, which causes a spasm of blood vessels, which can cause a risk of intrauterine hypoxia. Under the influence of cigarettes, the placenta thins out, becomes round, increases the likelihood of its detachment. Due to the addiction, hemoglobin in the body of a woman loses their function, which is to deliver oxygen to the uterus and the fetus growing in it. As a result, the uterus undergoes an arterial spasm, leading to a violation of placental function, as a result of which the fetus experiences oxygen starvation.

With every cigarette smoked, a pregnant woman is getting closer to dangerous, sometimes irreparable consequences, which include the following:

1. Increased likelihood of premature termination of pregnancy.
2. The birth of a premature baby with serious health problems.
3. Increased risk of fetal death.
4. Low weight of the born child, because of which his chances of proper development will be significantly reduced.
5. The development of the fetus of various abnormalities.
6. The occurrence of preeclampsia is a phenomenon that poses a threat to the life of a woman and a child (a pregnant woman develops severe edema, protein is detected in the urine analysis, and a sharp increase in pressure occurs).
7. Even if, right after the birth of the child, the mother who smokes seems to have no pathologies, over time the consequences of addiction to nicotine may appear - mental and social disorders.

Some mothers believe that if they do not smoke a whole cigarette, and begin to take a small number of puffs per day, this will not harm the health of the child. This opinion is erroneous.The consequences of the addictions of a pregnant woman will certainly make themselves felt, even if the future mother herself does not feel this at the moment. These effects include the following:

• the health of pregnant women who smoke is worse than those who lead a healthy lifestyle;
• nicotine can provoke the occurrence of varicose veins or its aggravation;
• possible manifestations such as disorders of the stool, dizziness;
• toxicosis in the first trimester and gestosis in the last.

The harmful substances contained in cigarettes destroy vitamin C in the body of a pregnant woman. Lack of this element can lead to metabolic disorders, impaired immunity, lack of absorption of proteins, psycho-emotional disorders.

Smoking while carrying a child threatens its safe development after birth. A smoking mother contributes to smoke poisoning of a child in her womb. Thus, the fetus becomes a victim of passive smoking, which increases the likelihood of acquiring addictions in the future. In children whose mothers could not give up cigarettes during pregnancy, often the first acquaintance with nicotine and alcohol occurs very early. Babies, while still in the womb, become nicotine addicted, they are more capricious, sleep worse, at an older age they cannot concentrate, some of them suffer from attacks of suffocation.

In addition, according to the results of recent clinical studies, it became clear that the carcinogens that enter the pregnant woman's body with cigarette smoke have a negative effect on the reproductive health of the unborn child. This means that babies born when they grow up may suffer from infertility: in girls, mothers who smoked during pregnancy, the supply of eggs decreases significantly, while boys are at risk of impotence.

How smoking affects pregnancy at different times

No matter how long a woman smokes, it will still harm her offspring to some degree. The difference is only in which particular internal organ of the baby will undergo more than others.

First trimester smoking
When a woman with a nicotine addiction finds out about her pregnancy, she begins to worry that addiction has already harmed her baby. In such a situation, you can slightly reassure the expectant mother. The first week after the fertilization of the egg is neutral, at this time until a strong connection between the embryo and the mother's body is established. At the moment, its development is carried out at the expense of its own resources. Embryo immersion in the endometrium occurs at the beginning of the second week, at which time the woman begins to suspect that she is pregnant.

Satisfying a bad habit does not allow pregnancy to develop normally, the baby’s organs are laid, healthy cells are replaced by sick ones.

In especially difficult situations, the toxic substances contained in cigarettes cause such a severe distortion of the fetal bone marrow structure that when a baby is born, he needs to be transplanted.

From the foregoing, it becomes clear that the greatest threat to the health of the child is smoking in the first trimester of pregnancy, since it is at this time that the laying of the baby’s vital systems occurs.

Oxygen starvation of the fetus, impaired blood flow in the vessels of the placenta, premature termination of pregnancy, increased risk of bleeding - these are not all the complications that smoking can cause during pregnancy.

At the moment, there is an increase in the number of cases in which mothers who have not abandoned a bad habit give birth to a child with congenital malformations.

Nicotine in the last months of pregnancy
Satisfying addictions closer to the end of pregnancy leads to serious consequences: bleeding from the uterus, premature birth. The fetus is also a nicotine addiction of the mother does great harm. In this case, children may experience inferior brain development, low body weight, and sudden death soon after birth.

The last month of pregnancy is a very important period when both the mother’s body and the fetus themselves are preparing for the main event - childbirth. Over a week, the baby gets heavier by about 250 grams and eventually sinks into the pelvis. The expectant mother more often feels not long and not painful fights, she begins to breathe again easily and freely. But not in the case when she did not give up smoking. A woman who was not able to get rid of the addiction by the end of her pregnancy can face many complications:

• the placenta can completely or partially exfoliate, as a result, bleeding from the uterus develops;
• significantly increased pressure;
• late toxicosis appears;
• childbirth begins ahead of time;
• increased risk of stillbirth;
• a premature baby born may be weak and painful.

• mental disorders;
• CNS pathology;
• Down syndrome;
• strabismus;
• inguinal hernia;
• myocardial disease;
• diseases of the nasopharynx.

All experts are of the same opinion - it is necessary to give up smoking. When the expectant mother nevertheless takes this right step, she brings enormous health benefits to her own child, even if she did it in the last months of pregnancy.

Video: smoking during pregnancy