When young women who smoke start to think about having children, they also need to think about quitting smoking. The best time to quit is when a woman is planning to get pregnant in the near future, or after she finds out that she is already pregnant. This will be better for her own health and for that of her baby.
Low birth-weight can result from poor growth before birth, preterm delivery or a combination of both. Smoking has long been known to slow fetal growth. Smoking also increases the risk of preterm delivery (before 37 weeks of gestation). Premature and low birth-weight babies face an increased risk of serious health problems during the newborn period, chronic lifelong disabilities (such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation and learning problems), and even death.
A recent study suggests that women who smoke anytime during the month before pregnancy to the end of the first trimester are more likely to have a baby with birth defects, particularly congenital heart defects. The risk of heart defects appears to increase with the number of cigarettes a woman smokes.
Pregnant smokers who switch to light cigarettes aren’t doing themselves — or their babies — any favors. The labels on light cigarettes may say “low nicotine” or “low tar,” but the claims are meaningless. All cigarettes have roughly the same amount of nicotine and tar.
To create light cigarettes, tobacco companies simply changed the design of some cigarettes so they produce fewer toxins when tested by machines in government laboratories. For example, manufacturers put tiny vents in the filters so that the machines suck in fresh air as well as cigarette smoke. But when so-called low-nicotine or low-tar cigarettes are smoked by people instead of machines, any differences pretty much disappear.
When people smoke light cigarettes, they instantly adjust their smoking technique. Without even thinking about it, they puff more quickly and breathe more deeply. Many smokers also inadvertently cover the vents in the filters with their fingers, essentially turning their light cigarettes back into regular cigarettes. In the end, they get their full dose of nicotine, along with carbon monoxide, tar, and all of the other poisons that can harm a woman’s health and threaten her pregnancy. Cigarettes made with 100 percent tobacco aren’t safer alternatives, either. Tobacco naturally contains nicotine and many other poisons. The most toxic compounds in cigarette smoke come from tobacco, not from additives.
Secondhand smoke (also called passive smoke or environmental tobacco smoke) is the combination of smoke from a burning cigarette and smoke exhaled by a smoker. The smoke that burns off the end of a cigarette or cigar actually contains more harmful substances (tar, carbon monoxide, nicotine, and others) than the smoke inhaled by the smoker.
If you are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke, you increase your and your baby’s risk of developing lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, allergies, asthma, and other health problems. Babies exposed to secondhand smoke may also develop reduced lung capacity and are at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome.
If a mother continues to smoke after the baby is born, the baby may get more colds, coughs, and middle-ear infections. Babies have very small lungs, and smoke from cigarettes makes it harder for them to breathe. This can cause the baby to get bronchitis and pneumonia.
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