Smoking

If you smoke, it’s best to quit before or as soon as you know that you are pregnant. Cigarette smoke contains thousands of harmful chemicals, including lead, tar, nicotine and carbon dioxide. When you smoke, these toxins go directly to your baby and can cut off the flow of oxygen and nutrients to your baby. Smoking cigarettes while you’re pregnant raises your risk of the following complications:

  • Vaginal bleeding
  • Preterm birth
  • Low birth weight (less than 5 1/2 pounds)
  • A stillborn baby
  • Sudden infant death syndrome

Just cutting down the number of cigarettes you smoke is not good enough while you’re pregnant. Every cigarette you smoke increases the risks to your pregnancy. Quitting completely is the best thing to do for you and your baby. It’s also important for your partner, family members, coworkers or friends who smoke to either quit or avoid smoking around you. Their secondhand smoke can harm you and your baby.

To find out more about quitting smoking, or to find support, contact the American Cancer Society. Talk to your health care provider before using nicotine replacement or prescription medications to quit smoking. The safety of these quitting aids has not been adequately studied in pregnant women. You may want to try counseling first. If counseling doesn’t work, you and your health care provider can decide whether the benefits of using these drugs or products to quit smoking outweigh any potential risks to your pregnancy.

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