Smoking and Pregnancy

Mothers who smoke put their unborn children at risk for many negative consequences. In fact, smoking can affect a couple's ability to even get pregnant in the first place, regardless of which partner smokes. According to Dr. Philip Owen, nicotine reduces a woman's fertility by affecting the production of hormones that are necessary for pregnancy. Smoking also hinders the transportation of the egg through the Fallopian tubes to the womb. Men who smoke have a 15% lower sperm count on average.

According to the Discovery Pregnancy Center, 13% of pregnant women in the United States smoke during their pregnancy. While a baby is in the womb, it is completely dependent on the mother for everything. Substances including food and oxygen come to the baby through the placenta and the umbilical cord. When a pregnant woman smokes, her unborn child is exposed to all of the harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke. Because smoking a cigarette decreases the amount of oxygen in someone's blood, it follows that a mother who smokes will decrease the amount of oxygen available to her baby. Fetal heart rate increases as the unborn child struggles to get enough oxygen.

Women who smoke are more likely to miscarry their baby or have a stillbirth pregnancy. However, mothers who smoke during pregnancy and have a live birth have babies who:

• are born prematurely
• have a low birth weight that is on average 7 ounces less than babies born to mothers who didn't smoke during pregnancy.
• have smaller-than-average organs
• have poorer lung function
• are more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome
• are ill more frequently
• are more likely to become smokers themselves

If you are currently smoking during pregnancy, it isn't too late to stop. Every cigarette you decide to not smoke will improve your baby's health. Make the decision to stop today.

Secondhand Smoke

Secondhand smoke, also called passive or environmental tobacco smoke, consists of two categories:
1. Mainstream smoke: the smoke exhaled by a smoker.
2. Sidestream smoke: the smoke coming directly off the burning cigarette.
The Environmental Protection Agency has classified secondhand smoke as a Class A carcinogen, meaning it is a substance known to cause cancer in humans. It contains twice as much nicotine and tar as the smoke directly inhaled by smokers, and five times the amount of carbon monoxide.

According to the University of Minnesota's Division of Periodontology, between 70 and 90% of Americans, including children and adults, are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke. Only about 15% of the smoke generated by a cigarette is inhaled by the smoker. The other 85% of this smoke containing 40 carcinogens lingers in the air for everyone else to breathe. For every eight smokers who die from smoking, one innocent non-smoker also dies. Shockingly enough, if a person sits in the same room with someone smoking for about two hours, they will have inhaled the equivalent of four cigarettes.

These statistics are scary because nobody can avoid secondhand smoke altogether. Each time we walk by someone smoking or sit in the same room as them, we are inhaling cancer-causing chemicals. This should be yet another motivation for active smokers to quit: smoking is definitely not an individual decision. Your decision to smoke negatively affects everyone around you. As non-smokers, there are some things we can do to avoid the harmful effects of secondhand smoke:

• Don't allow anyone to smoke inside your house. If they have to smoke, ask them to do it outside.
• Avoid restaurants and other public places where people are allowed to smoke. Go to smoke-free places only.
• If someone is smoking on the street, walk quickly past and don't linger near them.
• In situations where sitting by a smoker is unavoidable, simply ask them politely to put out their cigarette or smoke elsewhere.