Quitting Smoking While Pregnant

Most women know that smoking while pregnant is bad for the health of their baby. Smoking decreases the amount of oxygen in your blood because of carbon monoxide. Women who smoke are more likely to have stretch marks because the skin is less elastic due to the reduced oxygen levels. Their baby may be smaller than those born to non-smokers. However, women who are regular smokers should not quit cold turkey once they become pregnant.

How quitting smoking affects your pregnancy

Quitting smoking cold turkey causes a great deal of stress to the body, and these stress hormones can be bad for your baby. Too many of these stress hormones, and your body may even spontaneously abort the baby. Cutting back on smoking gradually will reduce the amount of stress on your body from withdrawal.

How to quit smoking while pregnant

Women who are pregnant and want to quit smoking should gradually wean themselves off of all tobacco products. Pay attention to how many cigarettes you smoke in a day. Then cut that number by a few cigarettes and stay at that level for a few days. Every few days to a week, subtract a couple of cigarettes from your daily allowance until you are smoking less than 5 each day. At this point you should be able to quit without too many withdrawal symptoms. If you find yourself lighting a cigarette that you really don't want, put it out. Often, your pregnancy will make cigarettes less desirable.

Try timing yourself between cigarettes. If you normally wait an hour between smoke breaks, add 15 minutes. Every time you get comfortable with the time frame you have set, add an additional 15 minutes. If you struggle to avoid smoking, try distracting yourself. Do the dishes, make the bed, read a book; do whatever it takes to stay on track with gradually cutting back your nicotine habit.

Pregnant women should not take medication designed to make you quit smoking, because these may be more harmful than smoking cigarettes. Nicotine replacement therapy can help you quit smoking, but nicotine is bad for you and your baby too. Even with nicotine replacement therapy, you may find yourself still smoking to feed the hand to mouth habit. If you struggle with the hand to mouth habit, try keeping suckers or carrot sticks handy. Some women find hypnosis or meditation helpful in quitting smoking.

In an ideal world, we would quit smoking long before getting pregnant. Unfortunately, this isn't always realistic. Nicotine is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Quitting smoking is always a hard habit to break, and every smoker trying to quit slips up every now and then. The important thing is to keep trying. Don't be discouraged by a bad day. You can quit smoking as long as you don't quit trying!

Sources:

Personal experience

http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/smoking-cessation-1#definition