How smoking affects pregnancy?

Wowww!!!! Instead of a comment, Edbert leaves a question to the post "Passive Smoking"!

This is his question, "What happen if you smoking while pregnant?" (What happens if moms smoke during pregnancy?")

Well, Ed. Clarissa has the answer for you.

-. You will have higher risk of having a baby with LOW BIRTH WEIGHT.

-. Smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS),       also known as cot DEATH.

-. Smoking during pregnancy may effect your child's mental DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR, leading to a short attention span and hyperactivity.

In addition to Clarissa's answer,

Smoking during pregnancy affects moms and the baby's health before, during, and after the baby is born. The nicotine (the addictive substance in cigarettes), carbon monoxide, and numerous other poisons mom inhales from a cigarette are carried through the bloodstream and go directly to the baby. Smoking while pregnant will:

• Lower the amount of oxygen available to mom and the growing baby.
• Increase the baby's heart rate.
• Increase the chances of miscarriage and stillbirth.
• Increase the risk that the baby is born prematurely and/or born with low birth weight.
• Increase your baby's risk of developing respiratory (lung) problems.

The more cigarettes a mom smokes per day, the greater the baby's chances of developing these and other health problems. There is no "safe" level of smoking while pregnant.

So, How Does Secondhand Smoke Affect Pregnancy?

Secondhand smoke (also called passive smoke or environmental tobacco smoke) is the combination of smoke from a burning cigarette and smoke exhaled by a smoker.

The smoke that burns off the end of a cigarette or cigar actually contains more harmful substances (tar, carbon monoxide, nicotine, and others) than the smoke inhaled by the smoker.

If moms are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke, moms increase their and their baby's risk of developing lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, allergies, asthma, and other health problems.

Babies exposed to secondhand smoke may also develop reduced lung capacity and are at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

Source : http://www.webmd.com/baby/smoking-during-pregnancy

Passive Smoking

Passive smoking is when smoke is breathed in by someone other than the smoker. Passive smoking carries all the same health risks as smoking, and it’s particularly dangerous for children.

Why is it so dangerous?

Tobacco smoke contains more than 4,000 harmful and addictive chemicals, including nicotine, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde. Second-hand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is smoke that comes from the burning cigarette (side-stream smoke) combined with the smoke breathed out by the smoker (mainstream smoke). Side-stream smoke makes up the majority of second-hand smoke and is more toxic than mainstream smoke.
If you smoke indoors, it’s not enough to just open a window. This is because the poisonous chemicals in smoke can stay in the air even after you have finished your cigarette. And don’t think that hanging out of the window will help – it won’t, and some research has shown that second-hand smoke lingers on clothes, carpets, furnishings and walls. This makes it almost impossible to keep second-hand smoke away from other people.

What effects can passive smoking have on non-smokers?

Short-term effects

Being exposed to second-hand smoke is generally pretty unpleasant – it may give you a headache, cough or sore throat. It can also irritate your eyes and make you feel sick or dizzy. If you have asthma, being in a smoky place may make your symptoms worse. And of course, although the smell of smoke on your clothes and hair may be less serious health-wise, it’s often more irritating.

Long-term effects

If you're regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, your risk of developing smoking-related diseases substantially increases. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that second-hand smoke increases your risk of heart disease and lung cancer by up to a third. Not only that, you’re more likely to develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes problems with breathing.

Effects on children

Children who are exposed to second-hand smoke are at an increased risk of a number of serious conditions, including:

• bronchitis and pneumonia
  
• asthma
  
• coughing and wheezing
  
• middle ear infections

There is also some evidence to suggest that being exposed to second-hand smoke may make existing conditions worse, decrease children’s ability to smell and reduce mental development.
If you’re exposed to second-hand smoke while you’re pregnant, it can lead to your baby having a low birth weight and he or she may not develop properly before birth. Smoking during pregnancy also increases the risk of cot death, as does smoking near your baby after he or she is born. In addition, women who breathe in second-hand smoke during pregnancy may have an increased risk of still birth.
Your child is also three times more likely to start smoking if he or she is exposed to second-hand smoke as a result of you smoking at home.

Produced by Polly Kerr, Bupa Health Information Team, October 2012.

What exactly does Alcohol do to our body?

So now we know that alcohol is a drug. But what exactly does it do to our body?

You must know this!

Short term effects
Right after someone has had a few drinks, alcohol can:

• Make you feel sleepy, less coordinated, and slower to react to things
• Cause your brain to feel foggy, and make you think and see differently

That's because alcohol is a type of drug known as a depressant that slows down your central nervous system.
You might see in movies or hear stories about people throwing up after drinking a lot of alcohol. That happens when a person drinks more alcohol at one time than his or her body can process, and because alcohol has toxins in it that make us feel sick (and usually, that sickness lasts until the next day, otherwise known as a "hangover"). Sometimes, if a person drinks alcohol while he's taking certain kinds of medication, he can have a bad reaction and get physically ill.
 
Over the long haul
Years of drinking too much alcohol can really hurt your body. For instance:

• Stomach and intestine problems
• Liver damage
• Weight gain
• Nerve and muscle damage
• Heart problems
• Brain damage. Alcohol is very bad for your brain, and can cause everything from blackouts to permanent loss of brain functions and memory.
• Cancer. Long term drinking has been linked to cancer of the throat, mouth, liver, esophagus and larynx.

Drinking alcohol can also lead to emotional and psychological problems like sadness, depression, and even hallucinations (seeing and hearing things that are not real).

More negative effects of drinking

• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If a pregnant woman drinks too much alcohol, it can seriously hurt her unborn baby and lead to birth defects.
• Alcohol poisoning. Drinking a large amount of alcohol at one time can cause coma and death.
• Alcohol and driving. Drinking alcohol makes it unsafe to drive a car. Drinking and driving killed over 16,000 Americans in 2004, and almost half of all car crashes involve drunk drivers.

Credit: http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/body/alcohol/article3.html

HARMFUL SUBSTANCE (ALCOHOL)

There's a lot of information about alcohol out there, and it can be really confusing. But here's an easy way to look at the big questions and answers:

What is alcohol?
The simple answer: Alcohol is a drug.
The longer answer: Alcohol is a drug made when yeast (that stuff that makes bread rise) meets sugar (found in fruit or grains).

• Yeast plus grapes equals wine
• Yeast plus barley (a grain) equals beer
• Yeast plus just about any plant containing sugar equals liquor (whiskey, vodka, rum, etc.)

What does alcohol do?
The simple answer: Alcohol makes you drunk.
The longer answer: Alcohol, like any other drug, has lots of effects on the brain and body. One of the most obvious effects of alcohol is called "intoxication," which is a fancy word for "being drunk." When you are intoxicated:

• Your brain feels foggy
• You think and see differently
• You can be slow and clumsy
• You may react to things slower
• You may be unable to control your emotions

Credit: http://pbskids.org/itsmylife/body/alcohol/article2.html