Smoking and the unborn baby
Protecting your baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life. It's never too late to stop smoking. Every cigarette you smoke in pregnancy harms your unborn baby. Cigarettes restrict the essential oxygen supply to your baby, so their heart has to beat harder every time you smoke. Cigarettes also contain over 4,000 chemicals.
If you stop smoking now
Stopping smoking will benefit both you and your baby immediately. Carbon monoxide and chemicals will clear from your body and oxygen levels will return to normal. If you stop smoking:
- you will have less morning sickness and fewer complications in pregnancy
- you are more likely to have a healthier pregnancy and a healthier baby
- you will reduce the risk of stillbirth
- you will cope better with the birth
- your baby will cope better with any birth complications
- your baby is less likely to be born too early and have to face the additional breathing, feeding and health problems that often go with being premature
- your baby is less likely to be born underweight and have a problem keeping warm: babies of women who smoke are, on average, 200g (about 8oz) lighter than other babies, and may have problems during and after labour and are more prone to infection
- you will reduce the risk of cot death, also called sudden infant death (find out about reducing the risk of cot death)
Stopping smoking will also benefit your baby later in life. Children whose parents smoke are more likely to suffer from illnesses that need hospital treatment, such as asthma.
The sooner you stop smoking, the better. But stopping even in the last few weeks of your pregnancy will benefit you and your baby.
Second-hand smoke
If your partner or anyone else who lives with you smokes, their smoke can affect you and the baby both before and after birth. You may also find it more difficult to quit if someone around you smokes.
Second-hand smoke can cause low birthweight and cot death. Babies whose parents smoke are more likely to be admitted to hospital for bronchitis and pneumonia during the first year of life. More than 17,000 children under the age of five are admitted to hospital every year because of the effects of second-hand smoke.
Getting help with stopping smoking
The Smokefree Pregnancy Support DVD will show you all the free NHS support available to help you stop smoking for good. To order your free DVD, call the NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline on 0800 169 9 169.
You can also order a copy through the Smokefree website, where you can also find useful information on the dangers of smoking during pregnancy and advice on how to stop.
NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline
The NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline is open 9am-8pm Monday to Friday, and 11am-5pm at weekends. The helpline offers free help, support and advice on stopping smoking when you're pregnant, including details of local support services. You can also sign up to receive ongoing advice and support at a time that suits you.
You can talk to your midwife, health visitor, practice nurse or pharmacist for advice and for details of your nearest NHS Stop Smoking service. They can offer one-to-one or group sessions with trained stop smoking advisers and may even have a pregnancy stop smoking specialist. They can offer advice about dealing with stress, weight gain and nicotine replacement therapy to help you manage your cravings.
