NDSU Student Health Service
Choices Program

Your Reproductive Health - Smoking and Your Reproductive Health

 

Smoking and Your Reproductive Health

Most people know that smoking cigarettes is bad for your health. Did you know that smoking is also harmful to a woman's reproductive health? For example, smoking is associated with cervical cancer.

Among women age 35 and over who are trying to prevent pregnancy, smoking can cause higher risks of side effects when taking oral contraceptives. For women trying to become pregnant, cigarette smoking can cause a delay in how long it takes to become pregnant. And, of course, once a woman is pregnant, smoking can harm both the woman and her fetus.

If you smoke and wish to quit, NDSU has a Tobacco Cessation Program that can help.

 

Harm to Your Unborn Baby and Infant

Pregnant women who smoke can harm their fetus by putting poisonous chemicals into their shared bloodstream. A pregnant woman who smokes is more likely to have a spontaneous abortion or stillbirth.

Smoking can hurt the baby after birth as well. The smoke that comes off the cigarette carrys chemicals that affect the health of infants, young children, and adults. Children of smokers are more likely to suffer from respiratory infections, bronchitis, pneumonia, and ear infections.

Women who smoke have an increased risk of delivering the baby before the full time of pregnancy and their babies have about a 25% increased risk of death just after birth. Babies born to mothers who smoke weigh less than those born to women who do not. Babies weigh less the more the mother smokes. Low birth weight is also associated with an increased risk of problems after birth.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

Babies born to women who smoke cigarettes also have about 3 times the risk of having sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS. With SIDS, the baby dies suddenly and unexpectedly without having been sick. Why this occurs is not known, but it may have something to do with the effects of smoking on the baby's breathing.

Delays in becoming pregnant

For women who smoke cigarettes, it can take longer to get pregnant than for women who don't smoke. Studies have found that women who smoke 16 to 20 cigarettes a day are 20% less likely to have given birth in the first year of trying. If you are trying to get pregnant, stopping smoking can help your chances.

Pregnancy outside the uterus

Ectopic (tubal) pregnancy happens when an egg is fertilized and becomes implanted outside the uterus. Women who smoke have a 2 to 4 times greater risk of having this kind of pregnancy. The risk gets higher the more cigarettes you smoke and the longer you have smoked. An ectopic pregnancy can be life-threatening and requires medical treatment or an operation.