How Does Smoking Affect an Unborn Child?
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How the Smoke Reaches the Fetus
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Smoking cigarettes during pregnancy more damage to the fetus than to the mother. When the smoke from a cigarette enters the body, some of the additives are quickly exhaled. However, other chemicals stay in the body and move into the placenta. The baby is then exposed to two kinds of cigarette smoke while in the womb of a smoker. First, the main smoke that comes from the mother directly and travels through into the placenta, and second, the smoke in the air that affects the baby second hand. Unless the mother stops smoking after the baby is born, it will continue to be affected and damaged by second-hand smoke.
Effects on Development
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Nicotine in the cigarettes combined with higher levels of carbon monoxide and lower levels of oxygen causes the baby's movement to slow down. It will have to move slower while its heart beats faster to attempt to take in more oxygen. This stress on the fetus causes it to develop slower and less completely than a baby in the womb of a non-smoking mother. Besides a slower development, the baby has a 29% more of a chance of being born with too many, too few, or webbed fingers and toes (see References). Smoking during pregnancy has also been proven to cause asthma, learning disorders, low IQs and lungs that can't fully function without the use of a respirator after birth. There is also a double or triple risk of sudden infant death syndrome (see References).
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Pregnancy and Birthing Complications
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Besides retarding the development of infants in the womb, smoking during pregnancy also causes ectopic pregnancy death of the fetus, and extremely dangerous birthing complications. The chance of having a still-born baby or one that dies during the first week after birth increases by 33% when the mother smoked during pregnancy, and miscarriage rates increase by 25% (see References). Premature birth and a low birth weight are also common. Placenta previa is linked to smoking as well, and causes the placenta to block the cervix, making delivery more painful and hazardous as it puts the lives of the baby and mother at risk.
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