Half of women smokers continue with this habit in pregnancy
Yes smoke It is a bad habit for anyone, for a pregnant woman it becomes even worse. It is not only the mother who is affected by the products that a cigarette contains, also the child who lives in her womb receives these harmful effects. In fact, the risk involved in carrying out these practices is well known, and gynecologists always warn that along with alcohol, tobacco should remain in the background.
However, many mothers continue with this dangerous habit despite being pregnant. This is reflected in the study carried out by the Catalan Society of Care and Treatment of Tobacco Consumption, which ensures that approximately half of women smokers maintain cigarette consumption when they are pregnant.
25% of women smoke
From this study it has also emerged that approximately 25% of women of childbearing age are smokers. Of this group of possible mothers, more than half of them continue with this dangerous habit when they get pregnant, the rest get to quit while they are pregnant, although few manage to leave it permanently and relapse once their child has been born.
This work has also served to indicate that approximately 70% of mothers who stop smoking during pregnancy, relapse once their child is born. With what the probability of continuing to consume tobacco in case it enters a second gestation as the addiction is still standing. The specialists remember the dangers that the use of cigarettes has for both the woman and the fetus in this period.
Dangers of smoking during pregnancy
Smoking in pregnancy has many risks. For the mother all those who have tobacco: increase in the probability of lung cancer, deterioration of the quality of life, stress caused by nicotine addiction, faster suffocation sensation. But the child who is in his belly is undoubtedly the most injured. Those babies born to women with these habits usually do so at a lower weight than they should have, which has a serious impact on their development.
In addition, these children can also be targeted respiratory problems and suffer from childhood asthma. Other issues that affect your health are otitis and other types of infections that make it harder for babies to survive. Although what should worry the mother smoking the most is that this habit can cost her to lose the child since the possibilities of abortion are increased.
And not only in the present the child is affected by the habit of the mother. In the future, the child born of a female smoker makes it more likely to be sterile due to the mutations suffered by his sperm due to tobacco. These alterations can also cause other problems in the child, such as hyperactivity and other behavioral disorders.
Experts also point out that not only should a mother quit when she becomes pregnant. All members of the household should stop this habit when the pregnancy begins. yes the woman that she is a passive smoker can also present complications in this period since exposure to smoke makes it more likely to have some alteration in her neurological system.
Damián Montero
