The Fayette Tribune, Oak Hill, W.Va.

Local News

August 27, 2012

Tribune Readers’ Views for Monday, Aug. 27

Pregnant smokers inviting problems

— If the unborn could speak they would say to their moms and to those around their moms “PLEASE DON’T SMOKE!” Smoking during pregnancy, as well as being exposed to second-hand smoke, harms both mother and baby in many ways.

Cigarettes contain more than 4,000 chemicals and 60 known cancer-causing agents like lead and arsenic. Nicotine is an addictive poison in tobacco. It causes the mother’s blood vessels to constrict, decreasing the amount of blood and oxygen that reaches the baby. The unborn would say “I need more oxygen to grow!” An unborn baby gets food and oxygen from the mother’s blood. When a pregnant woman smokes or breathes someone else’s smoke it passes cancer-causing chemicals and poisons to the baby and keeps the baby from getting the food and oxygen it needs to grow.

Smoking during pregnancy has been proven to cause a number of problems:

-- Increased risk of miscarriage, still birth, preterm labor and a premature baby (lower average birth weight = higher risk of health problems.)

-- Increased risk of birth defects like cleft palate and cleft lip, slow physical growth and mental development

-- Increased risk of placenta previa and abruptio placenta

-- Twice as likely that a pregnancy attaches itself outside the uterus (ectopic or tubal)

-- Doubles the risk of babies dying of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Pregnant women who are exposed to second-hand smoke have a 20% higher chance of giving birth to a low-birth weight baby than women not exposed. Babies whose mother smoked while pregnant have more ear infections, colds, lung infections and are three times more likely to have asthma.

Percentage-wise West Virginia moms smoke more during pregnancy than those in any other state. Fayette County has a high rate of prenatal smoking moms. The unborn would say “Stop now! It’s never too late! Give me a healthy start in life.”

For help in stopping smoking, call the West Virginia Quit Line at 1-800-QUIT-NOW or 1-877-966-8784



Kathy Bracken

New River MIHOW

(Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker Program)

Scarbro

Text Only
Local News