Pregnant women and babies at risk
When you smoke in the presence of a pregnant woman, her baby smokes too.
During pregnancy, the placenta protects the fetus against many things, but not against second-hand smoke, which reduces the blood flow to the unborn baby and risks affecting the baby’s heart, lungs, nervous system and digestive system, in addition to harming his or her growth.
By reducing the quantity of blood to the baby, exposition to second-hand smoke can be an important factor contributing to a greater risk, for the mother, of having a miscarriage, a premature delivery or one with complications.
Also, exposition to second-hand smoke is associated with a greater risk for the baby to die at birth or of being born with a low weight.
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