This article was written by Support

During pregnancy, everything that you put into your body also goes into the body of your baby.  If you are a smoker, you are probably concerned on how to quit smoking while pregnant.  The best time to quit smoking is before you conceive, but quitting by the 14th week of pregnancy is the next best option.

When smoke is inhaled, nicotine is carried deep into the lungs.  Absorbed quickly into the bloodstream, it’s then carried through the whole body. Nicotine can be found in breast milk and even in mucus from the cervix of a female smoker.  During pregnancy, nicotine crosses the placenta and is found in amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants.

Women who smoke tend to miscarry more often than non-smokers and have lower birth-weight babies. Low birth-weight babies are more likely to die, or have learning and physical disabilities. Women who stop smoking before pregnancy or during the first three to four months of pregnancy reduce their risk of having a low birth-weight baby down to the risk level of women who never smoked.

When a mother smokes, there is a higher risk of her baby developing asthma in childhood, especially if she smoked while pregnant.  Smoking has also been linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in many studies.  In addition, babies and children raised in a household where there is smoking have more ear infections, colds, bronchitis, and breathing problems than children in non-smoking families. Secondhand smoke also causes more eye irritation, headaches, nausea, and dizziness.

When you have children, you always want to set a best example for them. You can become a good role model for them by quitting now. Most parents, even smokers, when asked, don’t want their children to grow up and smoke.  Research has shown the best way to achieve non-smoking teens and adults, is for the parents not to smoke.  Learning how to quit smoking now may keep your children healthier and smoke free in the future.

Many pregnant women choose to go cold turkey to kick the smoking habit. The method is simple. You simply throw out all of the cigarettes, lighters and ashtrays and stop smoking immediately.  Normally, this method of quitting smoking is only about five percent effective in the regular smoking population.  Also, many mothers who use this method while they are pregnant usually start smoking again after the baby is delivered.

Maybe the best way for a pregnant mother to figure out how to quit smoking and not start again may be solved by the tapering off method.  Using this method, you’ll taper off to zero cigarettes a day by the beginning of your 14th week of pregnancy.  This will reduce the chances that your smoking will impact the health of your pregnancy and your baby. The tapering off method involves choosing a quit day and then reducing the amount of cigarettes you normally smoke in a day, until you smoke none on your target quit day.