How dangerous is that?
Whether smoking is dangerous during pregnancy can be answered with a clear yes. Inhaling a cigarette releases dangerous nicotine and tar substances into the mother’s bloodstream. Some of these substances also enter the bloodstream of the unborn child via the placenta.
However, the embryo does not usually have the same compensation mechanisms as adults, which is why the substances supplied are far more dangerous for it. This means that even in early pregnancy, strong side effects of nicotine on the embryo are to be expected. As a rule, smokers do not only consume one cigarette a week, but several a day.
This means that the dangerous toxins enter the bloodstream of mother and child several times a day and can cause irreparable damage to the child. Smoking must absolutely be stopped before pregnancy to avoid secondary diseases in the child. Despite the known dangers for the child, statistically speaking one in four pregnant women continues to smoke. According to estimates, smoking pregnant women consume about 13 cigarettes a day.
Consequences for the child
There are a variety of complications and damage that smoking can cause to a pregnant woman’s embryo. There are numerous studies that can prove this. Probably the most dangerous consequence of smoking is sudden infant death.
If cigarettes were no longer consumed during pregnancy, the risk of sudden infant death would decrease by about 60%. If you smoke 10 cigarettes a day, the risk of your child dying of sudden cardiac death is 5 times higher, with 20 cigarettes it is 8 times higher. The figures for miscarriages in mothers who smoked during pregnancy are still alarming.
Statistically speaking, this leads to significantly more frequent miscarriages. Even stillbirths are much more frequent in smoking mothers than in non-smoking mothers. Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are on average much smaller and weigh less.
For example, the birth weight of infants after a smoking pregnancy with a smoking consumption of approx. 20 cigarettes is 350g lower than in non-smoking pregnancies. The reason is mainly a lack of oxygen caused by nicotine consumption in the unborn child.
ADHD is a neurological-psychiatric disease that occurs mainly in children. It is an attention-deficit hyperactivity syndrome, which breaks out and can develop in children for various reasons. In the vast majority of cases, the cause cannot be clarified.
In some cases, smoking during pregnancy is blamed for this disease. In this disease, children suffer from anxiety, which is noticeable both physically and psychologically. As a result, those affected are often unable to sit quietly in a chair for long periods of time.
They also lack the ability to concentrate, which can have serious consequences later on in their school and professional careers. The children are also often socially excluded, as their behavior is considered very strenuous. Sometimes drug treatment is necessary and should be initiated if the disease is severe. Here, drugs such as Ritalin® are used.
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