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There are a few activities pregnant women should avoid all together, and smoking cigarettes is one of the most dangerous of these activities. Women who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to experience complications in pregancy or loss of a pregnancy, and smoking can have a negative affect on the baby's health.

It is estimated that approximately 22-30% of pregnant women engage in cigarette use, and another one third to one half of pregnant non-smokers are exposed to significant levels of second hand smoke involuntarily. Those numbers are 300-400% higher than the numbers for the 1940's, and the number of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has also taken a sharp increase. A study among pregnant women found that levels of carbon monoxide in the fetuses of pregnant smokers reached twice the limit of those found in the smokers themselves.

Smoking introduces over 4000 different types of foreign chemicals into the body. Many of these gases are poisons. Cigarette smoking restricts blood vessels, so the baby is not able to obtain the nutrients and oxygen that it needs. This directly causes lower birth weight in babies of smoking moms, as well as complications in birth caused by decreased oxygen flow. Smoking during pregnancy has also been linked to cleft lip, cleft palate, and gastrointestinal, visual, auditory, and spinal problems in babies, as well as ectopic pregnancies, miscarriage, stillbirths, problems with the placenta, prenatal bleeding, polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid), thrush, urinary tract infections, and premature births. The risk of SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) to a baby is also increased either if the mother smokes herself or is exposed to second hand smoke.

Mothers to children with ADHD smoked an average of 23 cigarettes per day, compared to an average of 8 cigarettes per day for mothers to children without ADHD. Seven to ten year olds whose mothers smoked during pregnancy scored lower on tests compared to children of non-smokers. Children of smokers are also physically developmentally delayed. Smokers' children at ages 7-11 were an average of 1 centimeter (about one third of an inch) shorter than non-smokers' children. They also had more problems with auditory processing and had a 50% higher chance of having severe asthma reactions.

For a majority of women, the easiest time is quit is in the first trimester because the senses of smell and taste are heightened and affected. The affects of smoking on unborn babies are cumulative, so even if the mother can't quit, reducing the number of cigarettes she uses per day will still have a positive affect on her baby's health.

The benefits of quitting the use of cigarettes are many, especially for the pregnant woman. Smoking causes prenatal complications, complications in childbirth, and childhood illness. Quitting before or at the first sign of pregnancy can save your baby's health or his life.

Resources

General Pregnancy

Pregnancy at About.com (http://pregnancy.about.com/)
Pregnancy and Parenting at iVillage (http://parenting.ivillage.com/)
Pregnancy Symptoms (http://www.epigee.org/pregnancy/symptoms.html)
Top Ten Signs You Might be Pregnant (http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy-symptoms)
Pregnancy Symptoms from MedicineNet (http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=79528)
Pregnancy at BabyZone (http://www.babyzone.com/loadpage/topic.asp?topicid=125628)

Childbirth

ChildBirth.org (http://www.childbirth.org/)
Childbirth on WikiPedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Childbirth)
Childbirth Photos and Videos (http://technorati.com/tag/childbirth)
National Institute of Health (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/childbirth.html)
Unassisted Childbirth (http://www.unassistedchildbirth.com/)
Pain Medications During Labor (http://www.babies.sutterhealth.org/laboranddelivery/ld_meds.html)
Labor Pain Meds at Mayo Clinic (http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/labor-and-delivery/PR00105)

Complications

Pregnancy complications at BabyCenter.com (http://www.babycenter.com/pregnancy/pregcomplications/index)
Bacterial Vaginosis (http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/bacterialvaginoses.htm)
Incompetent Cervix (http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/incompetentcervix.html)
Chronic Hypertension (http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pregnancy/pregcomplications/1427404.html)
Ectopic or Tubal Pregnancy (http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_newborn/pregnancy/ectopic.html)
Gestational Diabetes (http://www.diabetes.org/gestational-diabetes.jsp)
Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR) (http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/women/pregnancy/fetal/313.html)
Iron deficiency anemia during pregnancy (http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/pregnancy/pregcomplications/3073.html)
Placenta Previa (http://pregnancy.about.com/cs/placentaprevia/a/previa.htm)
Placental Abruption (http://folsomobgyn.com/placental_abruption.htm)
Pre-Eclampsia (http://www.preeclampsia.org/)