How Smoking Affects Your Unborn Child
January 18th, 2010
When you smoke, your unborn baby smokes, too. If you love your child then simply Stop Smoking! On average, babies of women who smoke weigh less at birth than babies of nonsmokers. And if you smoke a lot during pregnancy—more than a pack a day—the baby’s birth weight is likely to be even lower. This is not surprising, since the nicotine in cigarettes causes the baby’s blood to be starved of the oxygen needed for healthy growth. Although the baby quickly gains back the lost weight, by age 7 a child of a mother who smoked during pregnancy is still more likely than other children to be shorter in height, slower at reading and lower in “social adjustment” than children of nonsmoking mothers.
Entry Filed under: Health