In spite of all the warnings and literature that circulate freely, there are still women who insist on smoking while pregnant. What is it about smoking during pregnancy that seems to create this phenomenon? Surely, there is enough information about the effects of smoking while pregnant that everyone understands that smoking and pregnancy do not go together. Yet there are still a number of pregnant smoking women, even to the point that you can find pregnant smokers chat rooms on the Internet. What else can be done to get the point across that the effects of smoking during pregnancy put not only the mother but also the unborn child at risk?

Perhaps the first thing we have to understand is that pregnancy is simply harder on some women than others, emotionally and physically. No one will argue that a cigarette seems to release tension when one feels that the stress is just too much. Given this thought, it is easy to see how pregnant smokers who had chosen to give up the habit for the duration of the pregnancy can easily crave just one cigarette after a particularly trying period of time. it may very well be that the mother to be thinks just one will get things under control. Yet, as all addicts come to realize, one if never enough. Soon the woman is back to smoking cigarettes during pregnancy and all the good advice in the world can’t slwo her down.

Understanding the things that create pregnant women smoking at a time when they should be nicotine free is the first step in being able to resolve the issue. The second step is to be able to offer the pregnant woman smoking something else that will help relieve the tension and stress, so the cigarettes will not be so tempting. There is no hard and fast rule of what that may be. Typically, the physician and the patient will need to work together in order to find that magic element that ends the bout of smoking pregnant.

Of course, there are other dangers involved when you mix smoking and pregnant women. There is the matter of second hand smoke during pregnancy and what loved ones should be doing to shield the mother to be from the smoke. Smoking marijuana while pregnant is another far too common incident that may require the unified support of loved ones, therapy and the physician in order to overcome the desire. Pregnant smoking does not take place in a vacuum and it may take people all around the mother to be to get to the root of the smoking and help her continue the pregnancy without smoking.