Smoking and Pregnancy

May 6
08:10

2009

Yan Susanto

Yan Susanto

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Nicotine is the active drug which works on the nervous system. It is the drug clearly responsible for the chemical addiction related to cigarette smoking and the severe craving that occurs in the smoker.

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Nicotine causes an alteration in heart rate and blood pressure with just one cigarette. This effect is almost immediately noted in the fetus since the nicotine passes from the mother's bloodstream to the fetus. In animal experimentation it has been shown there can be a 44 per cent decrease in blood flow in the uterus 

Every time you inhale you fill your lungs with nicotine and carbon monoxide. Your blood carries these impurities through the umbilical cord into your baby's bloodstream. Smoking can restrict your baby's normal growth inside the womb.  

If you give up smoking when you're pregnant your baby will be as healthy as if you'd never smoked (womb). This means less blood flowing to the fetus and is probably one of the causes of poor growth and weight in a newborn child. Some studies on the animal fetus show changes in the central nervous system (brain,Smoking and Pregnancy  Articles nerves and spinal cord).

Though this of course cannot be checked as yet on human babies, it is frightening to think of the chance a smoking mother is taking that could affect the mental capacity of her baby. 

The same poisonous gas in car exhaust fumes is present in tobacco smoke. Not only is blood circulation restricted by the effect of nicotine but the oxygen carrying capacity of the red blood cell is reduced by the carbon monoxide from smoking cigarettes.

The red blood cells contain a chemical called hemoglobin which, instead of transporting oxygen, prefers to transport carbon monoxide. When this association of hemoglobin and carbon monoxide reaches 4-5 per cent there is alteration in mental, visual and heart function.

The smoker gets such concentrations by smoking just one pack of cigarettes a day. Some smokers have concentrations up to 10-12 per cent.

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