SMOKING STATISTICS

Smoking During Pregnancy

Although many doctors may have differing opinions on what is or isn't okay for a pregnant woman to do, there is one activity that you'll find no doctor approves of. This activity is smoking. Smoking during pregnancy is strongly discouraged, and even though it is hard to quit smoking, statistics give many good reasons why pregnant women must not smoke.

Smoking during pregnancy is a worldwide problem, although it is more common in developed countries such as the US, where an estimated 18 percent of pregnant women smoke. In developing countries, it's estimated that only 8 percent of expectant mothers smoke. These percentages may sound low, but together they equal up to one million babies born worldwide each year to mothers who smoked while pregnant.

Smoking during pregnancy leads to a variety of health problems, not only for the mother, but for the baby as well. This is because harmful chemicals in cigarettes, such as carbon monoxide, do cross the placenta to reach the baby. Nicotine also is delivered to the baby when the mother smokes.One of the most common problems for the baby whose mother smokes while pregnant is low birth weight. In 2004, 11.9 percent of US babies born to mothers who smoked weighed less than 5.5 pounds. Low birth weight was only a problem for 7.2 percent of US babies born to nonsmokers. Some of the low birth weight babies born to smokers also arrived early because their mothers smoked. Smoking can even cause placental abruption and death of the baby.

After a baby is born, a big concern of many parents is SIDS, or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Studies have shown that when a woman smokes during her pregnancy, the baby has up to a 3 percent higher chance of dying from SIDS than he or she would have had if the mother had not smoked.

It's really best to stop smoking before trying to conceive, as smoking just before or early in pregnancy increases the chances of birth defects, especially of the heart. But the good news is that it's not too late to quit once a woman discovers she is pregnant. If she manages to quit before the 15 week point in her pregnancy, a woman can lower her risk of delivering a low birth weight baby to about the same as if she never smoked. Any woman who is pregnant should try to stop smoking, with her doctor's help, as soon as possible.