Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
UI Maternity Center

Smoking and Pregnancy

WOMEN AND SMOKING -- THE FACTS

• Pregnant women who smoke have higher rates of miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, and complications of pregnancy.  Their babies are at higher risk for crib deaths than the newborns of nonsmoking mothers.
• The age at which Americans start to smoke is getting younger, especially among females.
• Current female smokers aged 35 or more are 10.5 times more likely to die from emphysema or chronic bronchitis than nonsmoking females.
• Lung cancer surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer deaths among women in 1987.

Smoking Cessation Support is offered to all our patients who are currently smoking and for those searching for ways to reduce or quit all together.  Most pregnant women want to quit smoking – not only for their own health, but for the health of their baby.  However, combining the thought of quitting and pregnancy is often overwhelming to many women.

Women who smoke while pregnant have a higher percentage of the following than women who do not smoke:

1.Vaginal bleeding

2.Miscarriage

3.Abnormal placenta implantation

4.Premature rupture of membranes

5.Preterm delivery

6.SGA (Small Baby for Gestational Age)

7. Stillborn babies

8.SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)

SIDS is higher in babies whose mothers smoke.

Smoking decreases the oxygen and nutrients to your baby.  Thus, smoker's babies are also more likely to be born smaller than normal.

When mothers smoke and breastfeed, nicotine can be found in the milk even five hours after the last cigarette.

SECONDHAND SMOKE

Pregnant women are not the only individuals who expose their babies/children to secondhand smoke.  All household members must be responsible and refrain from smoking around the pregnant woman, baby, and other small children.  In order for the pregnant woman to be successful with smoking cessation, it is important for family, friends, and co-workers to support her and not smoke around her.  Best of all, quit smoking.

• A number of studies show that in the first two years of life, babies of parents who smoke have a higher rate of lung diseases such as bronchitis and pneumonia than babies of nonsmoking parents.
• Smoke in the home can worsen symptoms of asthmatic children and even trigger asthma attacks.
• Smoke irritates children's eyes and nasal passages.
• Children of smokers are more likely to become smokers than are children of nonsmokers.

Peer Review Status: Internally
Peer Review Date: 2004