If you continue to smoke while you’re pregnant, it can cause serious harm to your baby’s health. Even if you smoked during a past pregnancy and has a healthy baby, every pregnancy is different. Quitting smoking at any time during pregnancy – especially early on – can give your baby a healthier start in life.
Smoking can cause complications during your pregnancy, such as:
- Miscarriage
- Ectopic Pregnancy
- Placental Abruption
- Placental Previa
- Preeclampsia
- Preterm Birth
Quitting before you give birth will give your baby these benefits:
- Less risk of being born too early.
- Less risk of being born with birth defects like cleft lip or cleft palate.
- Higher chance of having a healthy birth weight (more than 5.5 pounds) and growing on track.
- More likely to come home from the hospital with you and not to stay in the hospital until they are healthy enough to go home.
- Increased chance lungs will develop well.
- More like to have normal brain development before birth and through early childhood.
- Less likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
E-cigarettes should not be used during pregnancy. This is because e-cigarettes usually contain nicotine, which can hurt pregnant women and their babies. Nicotine is addictive and can damage a developing baby’s brain and lungs. E-cigarettes may also contain other substances that are harmful to a developing baby, like heavy metals, flavorings and cancer-causing chemicals.
There is little evidence that e-cigarettes help people quit. Quitting all forms of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, is best for you and your baby. Talk to your health care provider about proven, safe and effective quit methods.
Visit Smokefree.gov to learn more about e-cigarettes.
