Why It's Important to Quit
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Smoking and pregnancy: What are the risks? In pregnant women, carbon monoxide (a lethal gas) and the high doses of nicotine obtained when they inhale tobacco smoke interferes with oxygen supply to the fetus. Nicotine readily crosses the placenta, and nicotine concentrations in the fetus can be as much as 15 percent higher than maternal levels. It appears that nicotine is concentrated in fetal blood, amniotic fluid, and breast milk. Another ingredient of tobacco smoke, carbon monoxide, has been shown to inhibit the release of oxygen into fetal tissues. These factors, combined, likely account for the developmental delays commonly seen in the fetuses and infants of smoking mothers.
Women who smoke during pregnancy are at greater risk than nonsmokers for premature delivery, and there is a risk of lower birth weight for infants carried to term. In the United States it is estimated that 20 percent or more of pregnant women smoke throughout their pregnancies. The adverse effects of smoking may occur in every trimester of pregnancy; they range from spontaneous abortions in the first trimester to increased premature delivery rates and decreased birth weights in the final trimester. The decreased birth weights seen in infants of mothers who smoke reflects a dose-dependent relationship: the more the woman smokes during pregnancy, the greater the reduction of infant birth weight. Conversely, women who give up smoking early in pregnancy have infants of similar weight to those of nonsmokers.
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