How Does Smoking Affect an Unborn Child?
How the Smoke Reaches the Fetus Smoking cigarettes during pregnancy more damage to the fetus than to the mother. When the smoke from a cigarette enters the body, some of the additives are quickly exhaled. However, other chemicals stay in the body and move into the placenta. The baby is then exposed to two kinds of cigarette smoke while in the womb of a smoker. First, the main smoke that comes from the mother directly and travels through into the placenta, and second, the smoke in the air that affects the baby second hand. Unless the mother stops smoking after the baby is born, it will continue to be affected and damaged by second-hand smoke. Effects on Development Nicotine in the cigarettes combined with higher levels of carbon monoxide and lower levels of oxygen causes the baby’s movement to slow down. It will have to move slower while its heart beats faster to attempt to take in more oxygen. This stress on the fetus causes it to develop slower and less completely than a baby in the w
