The facts about Smoking in Pregnancy

• Smoking in pregnancy causes up to 5000 miscarriages, 300 peri-natal deaths (death around the time of birth) and 2200 premature births each and every year in the UK.  I imagine the numbers are worse in the US as there is a higher population to contend with.
  
  
• If you smoke during pregnancy then you will likely carry on afterwards and so then your child will be more likely to have respiratory infections, asthma, learning difficulties and behavioural problems, as well as a greater likelihood of diabetes and heart disease in later life.
  
  
• Your children are three times more likely to become a teen or young adult smoker, in some cases before they are legally allowed to try.  A physician who works with people to help them quit smoking mentioned to me the other day that the youngest patient he had worked with was 8!  Who wants that for their child?
  
  
• Your unborn child gets less oxygen because of the carbon monoxide from your cigarette smoke which disrupts the transport of oxygen to your placenta.  Also, the toxins from your cigarette smoke pass into your blood and onto the baby through the placenta again.  Both of these effects result in impaired growth and development for your baby.

Not a great list there of the risks of tobacco smoking in pregnancy, I am sure you can see.