Smoking While Pregnant
Through medical and scientific studies we now know that smoking while pregnant may or can be extremely harmful to the unborn baby. Because smoking has the effect of a appetite suppressant the nutrition passed to the baby through the mother in some cases may be limited therefore slowing the development of the unborn baby.
Mothers who smoke while pregnant can also harm their unborn babies by causing breathing difficulties at birth, continued health issues as the baby grows outside of the womb. Smoking while pregnant has also been closely related to it’s participation in Cot Death.
Evidence has not clearly shown that smoking before conception will be harmful in the development of the fetus but continued use of smoking cigarettes throughout the pregnancy supports some fatal side effects for the unborn baby.
Ideally a pregnant mum should quit smoking some months prior to becoming pregnant, if not as soon as she discovers the good news. Cutting down is a better alternative than not stopping at all, although the best scenario would be to quit smoking because it would be beneficial to both the pregnant mother and the unborn child. The addiction to cigarette smoking maybe extremely severe therefore causing additional side effects such as stress if any attempts are made to quit smoking.
Peter Howells is the author of a book called the EasyQuit System, in particular this book would be ideal for a pregnant mum as it does not recommend the use of pills, patches, herbal, natural or chemical methods to quit nor will the user of the program suffer the dreaded side effects such as headaches, over eating, insomnia or stress.