Help to Quit Smoking While Pregnant

If you're a smoker, you've been told at least 10,000 times that smoking's bad for you and you should quit. Typically you'll ignore the soothsayers and go on inhaling smoke after smoke; but when you're pregnant, that's something else entirely. Smoking while pregnant can have horrible effects on your child, and while quitting is never easy, it's essential that you quit for the well being of your child. Sometimes you'll need help doing this, but it's never far out of reach.

Consider Your Child's Health

• According to the March of Dimes website, if all smoking pregnant women quit today, there would be an 11 percent decrease in the number of stillbirths and a 5 percent decrease in newborn deaths. On top of this, smoking during pregnancy adds to an increased risk of low birth weight and heart defects, leading to countless other complications. Use this as your motivation to stay strong and quit smoking. It could make quitting a lot easier for you. Remember: You're not only quitting for yourself, but your future son or daughter as well.

Places to Turn

• While quitting smoking is something you yourself have to do, it doesn't mean you have to go it alone. Find a support group or a hotline and talk to people about quitting. Support from family and friends is important as well, because quitting smoking can be a mentally and physically exhausting experience. Try a free quit line such as 1-(800)-QUITNOW (784-8669), or visit community websites such as QuitNet (see Resources) to speak with other people who are quitting smoking or have already quit and enjoy helping others do the same.

Nicotine Patches and Other Advice

• If willpower alone isn't enough, you can also try using the nicotine patch to help curb your cravings. According to Pregnancy.org, a study has shown that nicotine patches are safe for women to use during pregnancy. This is especially true during the third trimester. While the nicotine in the patch still isn't good for the baby, it's far less harmful than the countless chemicals that would enter the body directly through smoking cigarettes. While not the best route to travel considering all of the births in the study were premature, it's certainly better than not quitting at all, because the babies born under the study all had a normal birth weight.

  Keep your child's health in mind and stay strong. By quitting, you benefit your child as well as yourself. Along with this, quitting will cut secondhand smoke out of your home (provided your spouse is a non-smoker). According to MayoClinic.com, secondhand smoke contains a number of potential carcinogens. In ridding your house of secondhand smoke, you're helping to better the health of those you share a roof with.

  The New York Times quoted Dr. David Abrams, an addiction researcher at the National Institutes of Health, as saying, "It's more difficult to get off nicotine than heroin or cocaine." Learn to fight your cravings, and you'll surely come out on top.