What Happens When you Smoke During Pregnancy?

Smoking anytime during your pregnancy is dangerous to you and your baby. It creates lots of adverse effects on the baby's health and leads a number of complications during pregnancy. Smoking and pregnancy don't mix ever. Smoking while pregnant keeps both you and your unborn child at risk.

Most people know that smoking causes cancer, heart disease, and major health problems. During pregnancy, it causes additional health problem including premature birth, certain birth defects, and infant death also.

Cigarettes contain dangerous chemicals including nicotine, carbon monoxide, and tar. Smoking remarkably increases the chances of pregnancy complications. The nicotine [the addictive substance], carbon monoxide and numerous other poisons, you inhale from a cigarette are carried through your bloodstream and go directly to your baby.

The side effects of smoking during pregnancy are:

• Lower the amount of oxygen available to you and your growing unborn.
• Increase your baby's heart rate
• Increase the chances of miscarriage and stillbirth
• Increase the risk level of premature delivery or born with low birth weight
• Increase chances of sudden infant death syndrome
• Increase risk level of birth defect
• Increase your baby's risk of developing respiratory [lung] problems

Smoking will increase the chances of bleeding during the last month of pregnancy, which is called abruption.

The more cigarettes you smoke during pregnancy there will be greater chances of developing health issues, so keep in your mind there is no "safe level" of smoking during pregnancy, so skip this habit or avoid it totally.