Can Smoking Cause Risk For Sudden Unexplained Infant Death?

Pregnancy is associated with numerous pleasures as well as with numerous duties. Smoking is one of the most dangerous threats to the health of your baby, whether it is occasional or passive (second-hand smoke). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is one of the most devastating results related to smoking that is rarely discussed.

What does that mean, and how does smoking pose a dangerous aspect?

What Is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)?

The sudden, unexpected death of a healthy infant is SIDS, which mostly happens during sleep and is less than 1 year old. It is also referred to as crib death since most of the time it occurs when the baby is sleeping.

The actual cause is yet to be completely established, but research indicates a high correlation between maternal smoking and SIDS.

How Does Smoking Increase the Risk?

Dims Oxygen Supply

The cigarettes contain nicotine and carbon monoxide that inhibit the oxygen supply given to your baby in the womb.

Influences on Brain Development

The smokers may affect the brain of the baby, particularly the one which governs breathing and the state of being awake.

Damages the respiratory system of the Baby

Newborn children of smokers are more susceptible to developing underdeveloped lungs, and therefore, they cannot breathe appropriately, particularly when they are asleep.

Increases the Chance of Premature Birth

Babies delivered too early are already at greater risk of SIDS, and smoking enhances the probability of early birth.

Passive Smoking Is Dangerous Too

You may not be smoking, but the fact that you have a partner, friend or family member who smokes may subject you and your baby to the harmful toxins. Secondhand smoke around the time of pregnancy or post-birth also predisposes to:

• SIDS
• Low birth weight
• Respiratory infections
• Children’s allergies and asthma

What Happens After Birth?

The danger does not stop with childbirth. When parents or caregivers smoke in the presence of the newborn baby, the infant is not free of SIDS. Their lungs are delicate, and exposure to smoke even raises the risks of infections and difficulty in breathing.

This is why it is necessary to make your baby smoke-free at home, in a car, and with other caregivers.

Quitting Is the Best Gift for Your Baby

It is not a secret that it is not easy to stop smoking. Yet the thing is that it is possible–and it is worth all the efforts as regards the future of your child. You are just pregnant, or you are already in your third trimester, and it is not too late to quit.

Mannat Fertility provides mothers with advice and emotional support in cases where they require assistance in quitting tobacco or establishing smoke-free spaces.

Final Thoughts

Directly or passively smoking can be a danger to the health of your baby and even SIDS. The positive thing is that the more you avoid a cigarette, the less you risk that. And each favourable decision you make boosts the future of your baby.

In need of help or assistance? Contact Mannat Fertility. We will be there to take this journey with you step by step, breath by breath, heartbeat by heartbeat.