“I smoke two packs of cigarettes a day.” When I heard the four month pregnant woman tell her healthcare provider this information, I had to pick my face up off the floor. Before serving with Healthy Start I believed that it was common knowledge that smoking while pregnant is not healthy for the baby. After viewing health screens for hundreds of pregnant women, I noticed that it is tremendously more common for women to smoke while pregnant. Currently 10 percent of pregnant women smoke during pregnancy. According to the American Lung Association, Smoking during pregnancy accounts for 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries and about 10 percent of all infant deaths. Smoking while pregnant causes one thousand infant deaths annually!
How does smoking harm the baby? When a woman inhales, nicotine, arsenic, lead, and carbon monoxide into her blood stream via lungs, the toxins then enter into the placenta that is attached to the amniotic sac, in which the baby is held. One of the vital roles of the placenta is allowing the uptake of nutrients, however, toxins from cigarette smoke prevents these nutrients and oxygen from being received by the baby. Smoking while pregnant can cause the baby’s heart, lungs, and other vital organs to not fully develop or function properly. Smoking also increases the baby’s risk of SIDS. SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is when a baby dies unexpectedly before its first birthday. Not only does smoking while pregnant put your baby at risk, but so does second and third hand smoke. Second hand smoke is when someone is smoking around the baby and the baby breathes in the smoke. Third hand smoke is when smoke residue is left on things like clothing, carpets, hair, furniture, and drapes. Studies have shown that the increase risk of breathing problems, asthma, learning disabilities, and cancer has been linked to third hand smoke.
The Healthy Start program is a great educational resource for women. The program provides education on the dangers of first, second and third hand smoke. Healthy Start even offers smoking cessation classes. There are a number of techniques that Healthy Start shares with clients trying to quit smoking, including breathing techniques, yoga, and meditation. Wearing a designated smoking jacket while smoking is one way that mothers and other family members can minimize the amount of third hand smoke the baby is exposed to. The more education that is provided on the harmful effects of smoking while pregnant, the greater chance we have at reducing the occurrence of low birth weight, premature deliveries, and infant mortality.
This blog post was written by Jamiecia Love.
Jamiecia serves at Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition as an Outreach Specialist.
“I smoke two packs of cigarettes a day.” When I heard the four month pregnant woman tell her healthcare provider this information, I had to pick my face up off the floor. Before serving with Healthy Start I believed that it was common knowledge that smoking while pregnant is not healthy for the baby. After viewing health screens for hundreds of pregnant women, I noticed that it is tremendously more common for women to smoke while pregnant. Currently 10 percent of pregnant women smoke during pregnancy. According to the American Lung Association, Smoking during pregnancy accounts for 20 to 30 percent of low-birth weight babies, up to 14 percent of preterm deliveries and about 10 percent of all infant deaths. Smoking while pregnant causes one thousand infant deaths annually!