Reproductive Health: Smoking During Pregnancy

Reproductive Health: Smoking During Pregnancy

Smoking during pregnancy is known to be associated with a number of health risks.During development of the baby's face the two halves of the face might not grow together completely, causing cleft lip or cleft palate. Sudden infant death syndrome, (SIDS), has also been associated with smoking.

Nicotine is one of the most harmful chemicals in cigarettes for your baby so you do not want to use the patch or any nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) that feeds nicotine into your system. Quitting "Cold Turkey" has a less than 5% success rate. Group therapy is just too slow, pregnant women need to quit smoking quickly.

Quitting smoking during pregnancy is a must if you want to maintain the health of you and your baby. If you're a regular smoker and you just recently got pregnant, don't expect to quit smoking cold turkey. It will take some time but this is a process that you will want to do to ensure the health of your baby.

Pregnant women who decide to quit smoking are faced with a myriad of smoking cessation choices. But as an expecting mother you have to choose a smoking cessation method that meets your needs.The effects of smoking during pregnancy are too risky at best. It become more acute during this time. You can decrease your chances of developing such complications as placenta previa going into pre term labor and even stillbirth. Every cigarette that you do not smoke increases the baby's chance for life itself.

Your best bet is to use hypnotherapy to stop smoking in pregnancy. It meets all of the criteria listed above. And if you choose the right form of hypnotherapy you nearly guarantee your chances. Neuro Linguistic Programming, or NLP, is a form of hypnotherapy that is perfect for expecting mothers.

Cigarette smoke significantly lowers the oxygen content of maternal blood and this is believed to be one of the main reasons why infants born to pregnant smokers have a lower birth weight.