Smoking while Pregnant can have Potentially Lethal Effects on Your Child

Smoking during pregnancy can have dangers to your unborn child. If you are smoking now it will be better for your baby if you quit now.

More energy when you need it is something you can look forward to if you quit smoking now. During the stressful time of pregnancy you have to be committed. Here are just a few of the many hidden dangers for your child when you're smoking during pregnancy.

One of the known worst case consequences from smoking during pregnancy is death for the child. Second hand smoke is also very dangerous and increases your child's risk of dying from SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome. SIDS is when a child under the age of one dies with no apparent cause as to why. As a pregnant mother, this is obviously a very serious risk to take with your child. If more women were aware of the risks of smoking while pregnant, we believe that more would work harder to quit.

One of the possible birth defects caused by smoking is cleft palate, cleft lip or both.

Both are considered birth defects and either one or both are more possible in your baby due to the mother smoking while pregnant. Birth defects can have negative effects on the development of your child before and after birth. You child could be negatively impacted by social stigma and various speech problems.

While this is a significant side effect there are many others associated with smoking during pregnancy. You may not realize that a good number of mental retardation, learning disabilities and even cerebral palsy have been linked to preterm smoking. Smoking while pregnant has been shown to contribute to the enormous amount of sudden death cases in infants.

For women who smoke during pregnancy, this should be a tremendous cause for concern.

The negative effects of smoking on her baby are numerous and are not completely understood. This article has focused mainly on the effects on the unborn baby but these same effects don't go away after birth. These consequences are far reaching and can affect the child well into adulthood. The child can be left dealing with the consequences of their mother smoking while pregnant for their entire life. Quitting smoking is vital to the baby and the mother for this reason.