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Smoking during pregnancy can create problems for your babies, such as premature birth or congenital disabilities. Also, it increases your baby’s chance of developing SIDS. If you require assistance in quitting smoking, talk to your doctor. Plan a quit strategy to ensure you stay on track to remain smoke-free. If you stop smoking while pregnant, your baby’s health will improve, and so will your baby.
What Is The Risk Of Smoking To Developing Fetus?
If you’re pregnant and you smoke cigarettes, it decreases the oxygen supply to your child and exposes them to various harmful chemicals.
A few of the harmful effects of smoking cigarettes on the unborn baby include:
- Increased oxygen supply and nutrients because of carbon monoxide as well as nicotine from tobacco smoke
- Growth and development slow down
- Risk of developing congenital disabilities such as cleft lips and Cleft palate
- The baby’s movements are less potent during the womb for at least one hour after smoking each cigarette.
- The impaired development and functioning of the placenta
- The development of the infant’s lung and brain
What is the Risk to the Mother?
If your health isn’t good enough to convince you to quit smoking, your baby’s health isn’t good enough. Smoking during pregnancy can affect your baby’s health throughout the pregnancy and after birth. Nicotine carbon monoxide, nicotine, and many other poisons you inhale from cigarettes are transported through your bloodstream and directly to the baby. Smoking during pregnancy can:
- Limit the oxygen levels that are available for you as well as your growing child.
- The baby’s heart rate should be increased.
- Increase the risk of stillbirth and miscarriage.
- You increase the chance of your baby being born prematurely or having a low birth weight.
- Increase the risk of your baby’s developing respiratory issues.
- Increases the risk of congenital disabilities
- Risk for sudden infant deaths syndrome (SIDS)
You increase your chance of having issues with your placenta, such as sudden placental rupture (when it separates from the uterus’s wall too quickly) or the placenta before (when the placenta is in an area that may tear during contractions)
The more cigarettes you smoke, the more significant your baby’s chance of developing these health issues and others.
How Do You Deal With Nicotine Cravings?
Cravings last for the longest time and are the most crucial withdrawal symptom. They may begin within 30 minutes after your last smoking session when the nicotine wears off, and your body craves more. The most intense physical cravings can last a few days after all nicotine has left your body. Then, the cravings for mental pleasure can last for several weeks.
Begin each step at a time. Please remember how you’ll make it through the coming weeks. Every craving should last between fifteen to twenty minutes. There are many ways to beat an urge, so it is beneficial to keep an organized list of the ways to beat cravings, such as:
- Keep your mouth active with hard candy, gum, and chewy (healthy) food items
- Utilize nicotine replacement therapy such as tablets, gum, or patches
- Walk around or perform a few quick exercises when you are feeling hungry
- Go to a public area in which you aren’t allowed to smoke
- Text or call a friend
- Take deep breaths
- Set a new habit for the times you typically smoke
- Avoid triggers that cause you to want to smoke, including caffeine, alcohol, or even people you know who smoke
- Remember why you quit
How Do You Cope With Withdrawal Symptoms?
- Exercise regularly
- Eat balanced and nutritious meals
- Stay hydrated
- Stick to a structured sleep schedule
- Join a support group
- Complement more traditional medical detox strategies with holistic methods
- Stretch often, and consider yoga and mindfulness meditation
- Communicate with a family member, loved one, therapist, or counsellor regularly
- Participate in relaxation techniques
Recommended medication that can be used by people who want to quit smoking:
- Varenicline – is a drug used to help people quit smoking. It has a smoking cessation property and is widely used by people who want to quit smoking. Varenicline, counselling support, and behaviour modification are used to eliminate nicotine dependence. The active ingredient of this medication belongs to the class of medication known as smoking cessation aids. It helps reduce nicotine cravings and the pleasure a smoker can get.
