Smoking in pregnancy
Smoking and your unborn baby
Protecting your baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life. It can be difficult to stop smoking, but it’s never too late to quit.
Every cigarette you smoke contains over 5,000 chemicals, so smoking when you are pregnant harms your unborn baby. Cigarettes can restrict the essential oxygen supply to your baby. As a result, your baby’s heart has to beat harder every time you smoke.
Even if you stop in the last few weeks of your pregnancy this will benefit you and your baby.
There is lots of free help available, so you don’t have to do this alone. Talk to your midwife – they can support with the best treatments available. If partners and family want to quit as well there is also support available for them.
Benefits of stopping smoking in pregnancy
Stopping smoking will help both you and your baby immediately. Harmful gases, such as carbon monoxide, and other damaging chemicals will clear from your body. When you stop smoking:
- you reduce the risk of complications in pregnancy and birth
- you are more likely to have a healthier pregnancy and a healthier baby
- you reduce the risk of stillbirth
- your baby is less likely to be born too early and have to face the breathing, feeding and health problems that often go with being premature
- your baby is less likely to be born with a low birth weight. Lighter babies can cause problems during and after childbirth. They are more likely to have problems keeping warm and are more likely to get infections
- you will reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as cot death
How does smoking harm my baby?
Most people know that smoking is bad for you, but if you’re a smoker and pregnant it can harm your growing baby too.
When you smoke, your baby does too. The toxic chemicals from tobacco enter your lungs and bloodstream and make your heart beat faster.
The chemicals are then passed to the baby through the placenta (which provides nutrients to the baby). It stops them getting enough oxygen and harms the baby’s growth and development.
In the UK, smoking in pregnancy causes up to 5,000 miscarriages and around 2,200 premature births each year.
Using quit aids
Some people can find it difficult to quit smoking when pregnant. This is because pregnancy can increase cravings.
You can use Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) during your pregnancy to help manage and relieve cravings. It is common to use two types of NRT to give you the same amount of nicotine without the harmful chemicals and poisons found in cigarettes. The nicotine in NRT is much lower than in tobacco so this means you are unlikely to become addicted to them, unlike cigarettes.
Your midwife or Stop Smoking Advisor can provide you with NRT during your pregnancy for free. You can also buy it over the counter in a pharmacy or in many shops.
Vapes are also being used by women who smoke during their pregnancy as a quit aid. They are significantly less harmful to health than cigarettes and studies suggest that the safety of vapes for use in pregnancy is similar to that of nicotine patches. While NRT products such as nicotine patches, gum and inhalators are the recommended option, if you choose to use a vape to quit your midwife or Stop Smoking Advisor can support you.
Watch this video below from the UK pregnancy charity Tommy’s.
