How to quit smoking during pregnancy?

When a smoking woman learns about the birth of a new life in her, first of all she thinks about how to overcome this bad habit. Currently, no one doubts the dangers of smoking during pregnancy, and in fact any future mother wants to give birth to a healthy baby. But how to get rid of smoking during pregnancy? How to facilitate this process and where to get will power? We will try to answer these questions.

How does smoking affect the child?

Let's look at the effects of cigarettes on the development and growth of the fetus. The effect of smoking is dangerous at any time. Special harm of smoking during pregnancy is applied in the first weeks, when a woman does not suspect an interesting situation and therefore conducts her usual lifestyle. In the first trimester, the fetus is not yet protected from exposure to harmful substances from the placenta. Thus, nicotine, carbon monoxide and other toxic substances get directly to the embryo through the mother's blood. This is fraught with the appearance of pathologies of the heart, bones, often resulting in spontaneous miscarriage.

In the second and third semesters, the effect of smoking on pregnancy can cause premature birth and cause aging of the placenta, which causes phyto-placental insufficiency. Nutrients and oxygen are delivered to the fetus in insufficient quantities, and then a child with a low body weight and small growth is born. By the way, at the moment when the expectant mother is delayed by a cigarette, her baby suffers short-term asphyxia.

Constant hypoxia (lack of oxygen) leads to a lag in the development of the fetal brain. Most often, mothers after childbirth say that their bad habit did not affect the infant's mental development. However, it is worth remembering that the effects of smoking during pregnancy can manifest much later when the child goes to school. He will hardly be given simple arithmetical actions or learning poems.

What will help to get rid of smoking during pregnancy?

To get rid of this bad habit a woman is quite capable. Perhaps, some of our recommendations will help you:

  1. A powerful stimulus can be a description of what happens from smoking with the fetus.
  2. If the cigarette is refused, the general condition of the pregnant woman will improve: headaches will occur, and the manifestations of toxicosis will decrease.
  3. It is not recommended to quit smoking in the position. The fact that the pregnancy itself is a stress for the body. A sharp refusal to smoke during pregnancy can lead to a deterioration of the woman's well-being. Stretch this process to 2-3 weeks.
  4. First, reduce the number of cigarettes smoked per day by one third, then by half. Later, smoke only a couple of cigarettes a day, gradually and completely refusing them.
  5. Before you break the body of smoking forever, take the rule not to smoke your cigarette. First, smoke a cigarette to half, and a week later, do just a few puffs to reduce the nicotine hunger.
  6. Try to avoid smoking stimulants. As little as possible visit the smoking place at work, abstain from companies where they smoke. Avoid nervous experiences, from which the hand reaches for a pack of cigarettes. If this is not possible, switch your attention, get distracted.
  7. There are various nicotine substitutes that reduce nicotine hunger and increase the chances of overcoming a bad habit. However, from the use of tablets from smoking during pregnancy, as well as little-studied electronic cigarettes, it is better to refuse, since there is a risk of excessive use of nicotine. Quite and safer analogs may be nicotine patches, chewing gums or sprays, the dose of nicotine in which is minimal. In any case, the option of substitution therapy should be discussed with the doctor.

We hope, having learned in this article how smoking affects the fetus and how to get rid of this habit, you will make a gift to yourself and your baby.