How smoking during pregnancy affects baby’s health

Dana Allen, a New Zealand resident, started smoking at the age of 15. It took half a pack of cigarettes a day. A lot, you must agree. At 19, Dana got pregnant. I decided to give birth. But she never stopped smoking. So what? After all, many believe that medical research on the dangers of tobacco is nothing more than a conspiracy.

For 9 months, Dana smoked like a steam locomotive. But the pregnancy was uneventful. Youth, you know, is a magical thing. And then came day X – the contractions began. The birth went well. Dana’s daughter was born – baby Kayla. But the joy was short-lived. A few hours after birth, the tiny girl was in intensive care. Doctors were forced to connect her to a life support apparatus: the baby could not breathe on its own. Kayla struggled to take a breath, but the air refused to enter her lungs.

“It was terrible. I felt and still feel terrible guilt before her, ”Deina told reporters.

Doctors showed the young mother her placenta: the tissues were speckled with black spots. Yes, all because of smoking. Fortunately, everything worked out: Kayla learned to breathe on her own, now she is five years old, and she is in perfect order.

“I am very lucky that my daughter is completely healthy. It’s just a miracle, ”says the mother.

A miracle is not a miracle, but Dana never parted with her bad habit. She continued to smoke until she was 25 years old. And the point is not in age, not in the state of health and not in the fact that she began to look older than her years: smoking still affects the condition of the skin, whatever one may say. Dana found herself pregnant again. It was these two strips that made her quit her cigarette.

“I remember how smoking affected Kayla’s health. I don’t want this to happen again, ”said Deina.

She had to reconsider all her habits and daily rituals: to refuse the words of colleagues “Let’s go smoke”, to stop reaching for a pack of cigarettes, pouring coffee. There were a lot of triggers. But she did it.

For your information:

Each puff deprives the child of the oxygen he needs. Instead, the fruit is given a cocktail of chemicals, including cancer-causing carcinogens. Here are just some of the possible pathologies that develop against the background of smoking:

– lagging behind the growth and development of the fetus;

– increased risk of having a baby with cleft palate and cleft lip;

– dysfunction of the placenta;

– decrease in fetal mobility;

– pathologies in the development of the child’s brain and lungs.

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