Smoking

Smoking is very damaging to both you and your baby, and now is the time to stop. You have the best possible motivation.

Smoking whilst pregnant not only affects your health, but your baby’s as well. It can cause the baby to be born with a lower birth weight. This is because one of the chemicals you inhale when smoking is carbon monoxide. This gas will enter your circulation and travel to your baby through the placenta. Carbon monoxide takes the place of oxygen in your blood and means that your baby will not get the oxygen it needs, which slows development.

Smoking is of particular concern for people with diabetes, including those with gestational diabetes. The chemicals in tobacco smoke increase your insulin resistance, which means that diabetes can get much worse. This in turn will mean you need to take much more medication and reduce the carbohydrates you eat much more strictly to keep your blood glucose levels within a healthy range.

In the longer term, smoking can increase the risk of heart disease and disease of the arteries such as heart disease and stroke.

Smoking whilst pregnant can also increase the chance of some other complications including:

• miscarriage
• premature birth
• cot death

We understand that it may be hard, but we want to point you towards support and to encourage you to make this choice.

You can find your local stop smoking service using NHS Smokefree, who also provide more advice and support for quitting smoking. Live Well also have some advice.

Speak to your healthcare team. They are there to support you and can offer you a personalised smoking cessation plan.