Smoking During Pregnancy – Why can’t we do it ? Our Grandmothers did!

Smoking is not good for us and we have known it since the 60’s. Can you imagine what is doing to our unborn? Depending on your age, your mother , or your grandmother might have smoked during their pregnancy and no one thought anything of it and it was widely acceptable. But fast forward to the millennium

Why is it so bad now ? Well for one, we know better. When you smoke during pregnancy , the toxic brew gets into your bloodstream, your baby's only source of oxygen and nutrients. And consider this: cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemicals, including truly nasty things like cyanide, lead, and at least 60 cancer-causing compounds. Do you really want to expose the love of your life to any of this?

None of this is good for your baby or you, but the most harmful compounds are nicotine and carbon monoxide. These two toxins account for almost every smoking-related complication in pregnancy,

Some of the complications that smoking during pregnancy causes are: stillbirth, premature delivery, and low birth weight. Why? Because the nicotine and carbon monoxide work together to reduce your baby's supply of oxygen. Nicotine chokes off oxygen by narrowing blood vessels throughout your body, including the ones in the umbilical cord. So today we are much more knowledgeable about smoking during pregnancy than our mothers or grandmothers were.  So if you are smoking and pregnant, think about quitting smoking now.