Smoking in public areas can harm nearby unborn babies, and there mothers. Picture this, your at the beach with your family, and as the afternoon comes to a close your whole family gathers at the seashore to watch the sunset across the horizon. When all of sudden your amazing view is abruptly interrupted by a guys smoking a cigarette in a tight speedo. Suddenly, you turn to your pregnant wife and realize she is clearly disgusted by the smell. You can’t help to think if the smoke being emitted from the cigarette is harming your unborn child. You are right to worry, cigarette smoke can have a catastrophic effect on your wife and on your child. Smoking can cause a women’s maternal conditions to decrease, and the smoke from cigarettes can also deform unborn babies.
Smoking can cause a women’s maternal conditions to decrease. This study, titled “Effects of Smoking Behaviors on Maternal Conditions and Conditions Arising during the Perinatal Period among Women of Reproductive Age,” states that a woman’s maternal condition can greatly decrease, and unfortunately this could lead to death. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of smoking behavior of pregnant women on maternal conditions and conditions arising during the perinatal period. The perinatal period is the developmental stage of a fetus from conception to birth.
Among the 382 subjects that took place in the study, 16.7% had 1 disease, 9.8% had 2 diseases, 30.5% suffered from 3 maternal conditions and 2.7% from 5 diseases. From this we can tell that the majority of the subjects suffered from 3 maternal conditions, and this is very dangerous, for the mothers, along side with the baby. In this study 47% of the subjects were between the ages of 15 to 34, and the remaining percentage comprised the of women between the ages of 35 to 45. This study found differences between the groups according to the number of diseases arising from individual characteristics.
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In particular, women over the age of 35 were often affected by more maternal conditions and conditions arising during the perinatal period, those in this age group mostly comprised the 30.5% with 3 maternal conditions. The study also includes ex-smokers and current smokers, these individuals got more diseases than those who had never smoked, as can be expected. The writer of this report said “It is necessary to develop a smoking cessation education program for pregnant women,” and this could be nor more true, nor sadder, that there are young women destroying their bodies and along with it, the life of a person that hasn’t even been born yet.
The smoke from cigarettes can deform unborn babies. According to the study called, “Impact of Maternal and Paternal Smoking on Birth Outcomes” a pregnant woman who smokes can damage and deform the unborn baby. If the mother doesn’t smoke but the father does, it can have similar effects on the unborn baby. The study showed that out of 16,537 participants, 490 mothers had a smoking habit during pregnancy. Mothers who smoked during pregnancy were shown to be more likely to have babies with low birth weight, shorter birth length, and smaller head circumference, and mothers who were older than 40 years old were even more likely to have low birth weight newborns and newborns with shorter birth length.
Mothers whose body mass index was under 19.0 were more likely to have low birth weight newborns, newborns with shorter birth length, and small head circumference. On the other hand, a paternal smokers can also cause similar effects in a baby. The study showed that fathers smoking near their pregnant wife/girlfriend causes low birth weight, and smaller head circumference, even though the women didn’t smoke. In essence this is a warning to all pregnant women, to stay away from cigarettes, no matter who is smoking them.
Most might claim that smoking is a good outlet to relieve stress. According to a study conducted, titled “Does cigarette Smoking Relieve Stress,” a study conducted with the sole purpose to learn the reason behind people smoking. They found that people smoke cigarettes in order to regulate emotion and relieve negative emotions. When they conducted a survey to see the reasons why people smoke, they found that the most frequently mentioned reasons for cigarette smoking were stress reduction and relaxation. That is why there are som many articles that claim that smoking might potentially reduce anxiety.
But there is also a possibility that smoking behavior might increase neuroticism and anxiety in essence raising a persons stress levels. The article mentioned above “Does cigarette Smoking Relieve Stress” found the after effect of smoking. Participants in this study reported that acute smoking decreased their anxiety and stress, which is in line with the expectation that smoking cigarettes relieves stress. But they later found that these same participants, developed an unusually high heart rate. Increased heart rate is a sign of increased arousal, and low arousal levels are ideal for the stress reduction process.
The study also talked about how an increased arousal level is a typical “physiological response elicited by a stressor,” this means that smoking actually increase stress rather than decreasing it, contradictory to the claim of many other studies, that claim that smoking lowers anxiety and stress levels. So maybe cigarettes are actually making people’s lives worse in every sense of the word rather that marketing it better.
Smoking cigarettes can causes many unpleasant and deadly effects. Smoking causes women’s maternal conditions to decrease, and the smoke emitted from cigarettes can deform unborn babies. We can reach this conclusion because of the numerous studies conducted, like “Effects of Smoking Behaviors on Maternal Conditions and Conditions Arising during the Perinatal Period among Women of Reproductive Age,” and “Impact of Maternal and Paternal Smoking on Birth Outcomes” just to mention a few.
These articles revealed the reason of why all pregnant women who are constantly exposed to cigarettes give birth to babies with low birth weight, shorter birth length, and small head circumference. We also saw the numerous women plagued with diseases, just for smoking. We also saw that even though many people say that smoking lowers stress levels, that the opposite is true, there are, with scientific backup, proving that smoking actually raises your heart rate which is a direct effect of high stress levels.
All of these studies can lead us to make the conclusion that smoking is harmful for pregnant women and there unborn babies. This means that cigarettes could lead to the destruction of the upcoming generation. So next time your at the beach, and want to light a cigarette think; Whose life am I destroying? My life, or someone else’s? What price am I paying for smoking? Am I capable of paying that price?
References
- CDC: Health Effects of Secondhand Smoke
- Effects of Smoking Behaviors on Maternal Conditions and Conditions Arising during the Perinatal Period among Women of Reproductive Age
- WebMD: Smoking During Pregnancy
- Smoking during pregnancy: The effects on reproduction and fetal development
- Prenatal exposure to cigarette smoking and the development of children’s cognitive skills: longitudinal findings from twin pregnancies.
- Impact of Maternal Cigarette Smoking on Brain Structure in Adolescents
- World Health Organization: Tobacco
