Cigarette Smoke After Birth example essay topic

DoMoe 1 Smoking while pregnant can have many short, as well as long term, negative effects on an unborn child. If a woman smokes while she is pregnant she is risking exposing the unborn child to many harmful chemicals, such as nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, cyanide, hydrocarbons, and vy nil chloride. These chemicals can hinder the child's life after it is born, or determine whether some are born at all. There are many harmful effects of smoking while pregnant, some of which happen before the baby is even born. One complication is an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy. Which is when the embryo becomes implanted in a fallopian tube or another site instead of the uterus.

Only in extremely rare cases does this result in the birth of the child. Most of the time the fetus must be removed surgically or with drug treatments to protect the woman's life. Cigarette smoke also seems to double a women's risk of developing placental complications. These include placental previa, a condition in which the placenta is attached too low in the uterus and covers part or all of the cervix; a placental abruption, in which the placenta separates from the uteri n wall before delivery (Edelson 50). Smoking also slows a fetus's birth rate and nearly doubles a woman's risk of giving DoMoe 2 birth to a low weight baby. In these cases when a baby below 5 1/2 pounds it faces an increased risk of serious health problems during the newborn period.

These problems include cerebral palsy, mental retardation, learning disabilities, or even death (Baily 162). Its also been suggested that smoking increases preterm delivery by nearly 30 percent. It also increases the likely hood of a cleft lip or cleft palate. But the risk of a lower birth weight can be reduced if a woman gives up cigarettes as late as the last four months of pregnancy (Edelson 50). Overall, babies of mothers who smoke weigh almost 1/2 pound less than those of their nonsmoking peers (Herman, Perry 2). Not only can difficulties happen before the baby is born but also afterwards.

Babies who are exposed to cigarette smoke after birth face an increased risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Bilich). Also infants whose mothers smoke are 38 percent more likely to be hospitalized for pneumonia during their first year of life than babies whose mothers smoke (Bilich). Parental smoking, and especially maternal smoking, is also associated with an increase in the incidence and severity of asthma (Whelen 73). Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) has also proven to be DoMoe 3 a risk factor for a child to develop a new case of asthma. In fact exposure to as few as 10 cigarettes per day can raise a childs chance of developing asthma even if no symptoms have never occured before. Each year nearly three hundred thousand infections such as colds, fl us, and pneumonia in babies and infants (Monroe 103).

Exposure to ETS also increases the risk of chronic ear infections and fluid int he middle ear (Whelen 73). These infections can cause lifelong hearing loss, and if lost at an early age can cause serious consequences to a child's development in speech and learning. Maternal smoking is also responsible for a risk of mental development problems such as speech, language, intelligence, behavior, and attention span (Baily 161). It also effects a childs behavior patterns as they grow older. The more cigarettes a woman smokes during pregnancy the greater the risk her child would develop severe behavior problems (Press inger). It is estimated that about 30 percent of mentally re tarted children are an effect of maternal smoking.

As few as five cigarettes a week increases the risk of a retarded child by 50 to 60 percent, and those who smoke a whole pack a day increase the risk to 75 percent (Baily 161). Also the infant DoMoe 4 mortality rate of a baby, either at birth or through miscarriage, is 50 percent higher with mothers who smoke (Monroe 101). In a survey taken in 1999 statistics of smoking while pregnant were broken down into three categories; race, age, and education. By race it was American Indian / Alaskan Native 21%, Asian American / Pacific Islander 3%, African American 9%, White 16%, And Hispanic American 4%. By age it was from 15-19 years old 18%, 20- 24 years old 17%, 25-34 years old 10%, and more than 34 years of age 10%.

By education it went less that 12 years of education 21%, 12 years of education 17%, and more than 12 years of education 5% (Pressroom. americanlegeacy. org). With all of the information we now possess on what smoking while pregnant can do to a woman's unborn child one would think that the statistics would be even lower. By smoking while pregnant a woman can ruin her childs life before it even begins. So, before a woman makes a decision to start smoking they should think about the effects, not only on themselves, but on their unborn child.