How smoking can affect a pregnancy
The Boston Globe reports:
The nicotine in cigarettes may cause constrictions in blood vessels of the umbilical cord and uterus and thereby decrease the amount of oxygen available to the fetus.
Babies of mothers who smoked during pregnancy have lower birth weights, a leading cause of infant deaths.
Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of pregnancy complications, premature delivery, stillbirth, and sudden infant death syndrome.
The good news is women who quit before becoming pregnant reduce many of these risks to that of women who’ve never smoked.
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