Parting with smoking is necessary at the planning stage of pregnancy, and if it is not possible - you need to do everything necessary to get rid of this habit during pregnancy.
Is it possible to quit smoking with a pregnant woman?
A complete refusal of smoking positively affects the health of the fetus and is the only correct decision in pregnancy. And the sooner and more decisively the woman part with the cigarette, the better for the baby.
Termination of smoking in the first trimester reduces the likelihood of premature birth, compared with women who continue to smoke.
Cessation of smoking before the term of 32 weeks leads to the disappearance of differences in the circumference of the head of the child's smoking and non-smoking mother. If a woman does not quit smoking, the difference in head size is significant and persists until the age of 5.
Why can not I always quit
? Not always even pregnancy can motivate a woman to quit smoking. The cause of failure can be a woman's inclination to anxiety disorders, depression.
People inclined to depression experience great difficulties when trying to part with a cigarette. The relationship between depression and nicotine addiction can be due to the smoking of the mother of a pregnant woman, passive smoking at an early age.
Up to 10% of pregnant women suffer from depressive disorders and the number is growing because of the increase in the number of smokers in several generations. Depression in pregnancy is a severe mental condition, the extreme manifestation of which are suicidal thoughts and actions:
- Especially high risk of developing a disorder in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. If in 1 and 2 trimesters depression is overtaken by about 11-17% of women, then in the last months before giving birth the symptoms of a depressive state of different degree occur up to 50% of women.
- In 2% of pregnant women, a suicidal tendency is noted in later terms. The plight of a woman is explained by the fear of childbirth, the future changes in life, when nothing will be "as before," everything will change.
Depression of a pregnant woman can adversely affect a child's health, result in postpartum depression, which affects up to 13% of all women giving birth.
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In rare cases( in 1 of 1000 women giving birth) postpartum psychosis develops - a serious illness characterized by agitation, aggression, risk of harm to others.
It is not recommended to self-quit smoking with pregnant women with a penchant for depression. There are techniques that can help a woman quit smoking without risking mental health.
How to assess the degree of nicotine addiction
Evaluates the degree of depressive disorder of the psychotherapist-narcologist, but you can get an idea of your chances of self-withdrawal by using the Great Depression questionnaire, Zang scale, Fagerstrem tests, Lagroy.
In addition, women who reduced the number of cigarettes a day, compensate for this by deeper puffs, smoking a cigarette to the filter itself.
Passive smoking
It is dangerous for a pregnant woman to stay in a smoke-free room and inhale air polluted by the products of tobacco combustion. Such passive smoking during pregnancy can cause headache, nausea, irritation of the mucous eyes, provoke asthma attacks, allergic rhinitis.
There may be other consequences caused by the effects of secondhand smoke:
- People with allergies to smoke components may experience a reaction, with tachycardia attacks, impaired orientation in space, a drop in blood pressure.
- The state of health of people with heart and vascular diseases worsens.
- The risk of having a child with a pathology of internal organs increases by 13%, and the birth of a dead baby by 23%.
- Passive smoking threatens the child with lung cancer, breast cancer in adulthood.
- The risk of a child developing bronchial asthma, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, cardiovascular system in adulthood is increasing.
In children of smoking parents, the level of IgE immunoglobulin involved in the body's allergic response to an external stimulus is increased. Tobacco smoke serves as a sensitizing factor that increases the child's allergic sensitivity.
In families where only a husband smokes, there is an increase in the likelihood of premature birth. A passively smokering mother has 250 ml less breast milk than a woman whose family does not smoke. Children who are breastmilk with nicotine often suffer from bloating, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting.
In terms of health hazards, tobacco smoke exceeds exhaust fumes, since they smoke in confined spaces, and no ventilation system is able to cope with the variety of toxins released.
Replacement of cigarettes
There is absolutely no safe replacement for cigarettes. Do not also switch to lightweight options. A smaller amount of nicotine is excessively compensated by the action of carbon monoxide, ammonia.
The method of gradually getting rid of the habit is the use of nicotine patches, chewing gum, electronic cigarettes. These drugs contain nicotine, maintain the necessary concentration of it in the blood, which helps to avoid the withdrawal syndrome associated with quitting smoking.
Nicotine plaster effectively helps with smoking. It is fastened to the skin for a day, the dose is gradually reduced, setting plasters with a low content of nicotine.
This method weakens the psychological dependence, destroying the habitual ritual of tobacco consumption. The advantages of using a nicotine patch include the cessation of the intake of tobacco, paper, aromatic impregnation products into the body.
Nicorette chewing gum is suitable only for people with a healthy stomach. Long chewing gum, laid down by the instructions, can lead to stomach upset.
Applying cigarette substitutes, you need to remember that at this time you can not smoke. Moreover, it is completely worthless to refuse, and not be tempted by the thought that you can sometimes smoke, but one or two cigarettes will not harm either.
How to abandon the dependence
To quit smoking is better right away. In order not to resume this bad habit, the house needs to destroy the stock of cigarettes, throw ashtray, cigarette lighter, destroy the possibility of performing the ritual of smoking in its usual form.
Set yourself a specific task, for example, hold out for a day. Having woken up in the morning and found that there is life without a cigarette, you can set the following goal - not to smoke for another day. It should be understood that there may be disruptions, they need to be overcome and go further.
The degree of dependence on nicotine can be so strong that you can not quit without medical assistance. The best ways to get rid of the habit in this case - psychocorrection with the help of hypnosis, behavioral techniques.
The session of hypnotherapy is based on the formation of a negative attitude towards smoking, consolidation and strengthening of motivation. In most cases, hypnosis gives good results in treating pregnant women.
The behavioral technique is aimed at being more aware of the causes of smoking, forming a new behavior model in which there is no place for tobacco smoke. The desire to smoke is replaced by more constructive ways to get rid of tension, smooth the conflict.
Folk methods
There are several simple methods that will help relatively painlessly quit smoking during pregnancy:
- Cigarette is well soaked in milk, let it dry. Then smoke. Taste disgusting, for a long time is remembered.
- Rinse mouth with baking soda solution.
- Eat a slice of pineapple if you want to smoke. Pineapple suppresses cravings for nicotine.
In the body of smokers, vitamins B and vitamin C are especially low. Lack of nutrients causes toxicosis, impaired fetal development, leads to depression, makes it more difficult to quit smoking.
If you want to smoke, you can use the following methods:
- drink juice, mineral water, soothing tea with chamomile, motherwort;
- to refuse strong tea, coffee, weak tea with honey is allowed;
- to eat foods with a high content of vitamin C - black currant, orange, lemon;
- useful snack low-calorie raw vegetables, fruits - carrots, apple, lettuce from leafy greens with lemon juice;
- to eat sunflower seeds, mint candies, chewing gum, nuts;
- to occupy hands with needlework - knitting, weaving, modeling.
How to behave
In the process of abandoning the harmful habit of smoking, it is important to adhere to the following rules:
- Avoid smoking;
- not to drink alcohol, coffee;
- diversify life, do swimming, pilates, yoga;
- tell everyone that you quit smoking, get support.
It is useful to do respiratory gymnastics for pregnant women. Doing breathing exercises instead of smoking will help quickly abandon the habit. After smoking a cigarette, it will be more difficult to perform exercises, there will be a visual motivation to end dependence.
Help in striving to quit can render yoga. Performing asanas restores mental balance, teaches to understand one's body, trains breathing. In yoga, there are several ways to train breathing during pregnancy. All of them do not combine with smoking, gradually the body itself will begin to protest against the cigarette.
On the video the answer to the question, whether it is possible to quit smoking during pregnancy: