Protecting your baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life. Every cigarette you smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, so smoking when you are pregnant harms your unborn baby. Our experts at Nicorette® idenitfy some of the effects that smoking can have on your baby could which include:
complications in pregnancy
stillbirth
your baby being born prematurely
your baby being born underweight
cot death, also called sudden infant death
The good news is that stopping smoking at any stage of pregnancy is beneficial. Even after just 1 day of being smoke-free your baby gets more oxygen.
How do you stop smoking when you’re pregnant?
Ideally, during pregnancy you should stop smoking without using NRT. Stopping completely is by far the best option but if this is not achievable, use NRT, as it doesn’t contain any of the damaging chemicals found in cigarettes and can help relieve cigarette cravings.
Medicines can affect the unborn baby. Always talk to your doctor or pharmacist before taking any medicine in pregnancy.
There are other things you can do to help you quit smoking, like identifying what makes you crave a cigarette and avoiding this trigger, or doing exercise to keep you busy and to relieve the stress of quitting. We have compiled a list of top 10 quit smoking tips to help you.
Also, read about how to quit smoking gradually here.
