Smoking during pregnancy puts your baby at risk. Every time you smoke a cigarette, carbon monoxide and other poisons pass into your lungs.

This means:

• That your baby gets less oxygen and cannot grow as well as it should
• Nicotine makes your baby’s heart beat faster
• Being in a smoke filled environment and breathing in other people’s
  smoke makes the baby more likely to suffer from asthma attacks, chest
  infections, coughs and colds

If you STOP NOW

If you stop smoking now you will :

• Have less morning sickness and fewer complications in pregnancy
• Be more likely to have a healthier pregnancy and a healthier baby
• Reduce the risk of stillbirth
• Cope better with the birth
• Cope better with any birth complications
• Have a baby that is less likely to be born too early and have to face
  the additional breathing, feeding and health problems which so often
  go with prematurity
• Have a baby that is less likely to be underweight and have extra problems
  in keeping warm. Babies of mothers who smoke are, on average, 200g (about
  7oz) lighter than other babies. These babies may have problems during
  and after labour, and are more prone to infection
• Be enabling your baby to be more healthy in later life. Children
  whose parents smoke are more likely to suffer later on from illnesses
  which need hospital treatment (such as asthma)
• Reduce the risk of cot death

The sooner you stop, the better.

But stopping even in the last few weeks of pregnancy can be beneficial. If any members of your household smoke, their smoke can affect you and the baby both before and after birth. They can help you and the baby by giving up now. Perhaps you could try to stop together. Protecting the fetus and the new baby from tobacco smoke is one of the best things you can do to give your child a healthy start in life.