Re:Is second hand smoke bad during pregnancy?
It has already been shown that there are effects to people who are around others who smoke so you can assume that second-hand smoke is not a good thing in pregnancy and it carries some of the same risks as smoking yourself. It is all a matter of the degree to which you are around a smoker or smokers.
According to the March of Dimes, at least ten percent of women smoke during pregnancy and at least that many sustain second hand smoke. If all women stopped smoking in pregnancy, there would be an instantaneous reduction in stillbirths of 11 percent and a five percent reduction in newborn deaths.
Smoking nearly doubles the risk of having a low birthweight infant with a birthweight of less than five and a half pounds. Exposure to smoke also increases the chances of a preterm delivery. Premature babies have health problems that full term babies do not such as cerebral palsy, mental retardation and learning problems.
Smoking is also associated with having a placenta previa or a low-lying placenta, placental abruption or a placenta that breaks away from the lining of the uterus and heavy bleeding during the delivery that can be of a great danger to both the mother and the baby. Smoke exposure in pregnancy increases a person’s risk of premature rupture of the membranes or early breakage of the bag of waters around the baby. This alone can cause a preterm birth.
It’s all a matter of degree. If you live in a smoky environment, you will have the same problems that a woman who smokes herself has but it will be of a lesser degree than if you smoke yourself.
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