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Featured Article
An Easy Decision - Smoking Or Breast Feeding
The decision between smoking or breast feeding is
easy, because smoking and breast feeding are bad for
mother
and baby. Both will suffer the ill effects of the toxins
and poisons contained in cigarettes. Even though the
truth about smoking has been known for many years, many
women still continue to smoke during pregnancy, and while they
are breast feeding. In fact, some women smoke during the
act of
breast feeding.
When it comes to smoking or breast feeding, nursing
mothers should know that it is a dangerous practice that
should be avoided. The risk to the baby is compounded if
the mother smokes more than 20 cigarettes per day.
However, any amount of cigarette smoking is harmful to a
baby. The more cigarettes
a woman smokes, the more
harmful the effects are to her baby.
For some nursing mothers, heavy smoking can reduce the
milk supply, and on rare occasions can cause symptoms in
the breast feeding baby, including nausea, vomiting,
abdominal cramps, and
diarrhea.
So the woman must choose between
smoking and breast feeding, because the effects of
smoking are harmful to her
and her baby.
When a nursing mother smokes a cigarette, the nicotine
levels in her blood and milk, increase and decrease over
a certain period of time. If a mother smokes a cigarette
just before or during feeding, the risk to the baby is
high, as the amount of time
it takes for just half of the nicotine to be eliminated from the
body, is ninety five minutes.
When it comes to breast feeding or smoking, maternal
smoking has been linked to early weaning, lowered
milk production, and inhibition of the milk
ejection, or the let down reflex. This is why many women decide to quit smoking
before and during pregnancy, for the benefit of their own
health, and also the health of their babies.
Mothers who enjoy breast feeding and smoking, may cause
their infants to be fussier than infants whose mothers
do not smoke. These babies may even be colicky.
Whether or not a mother is breast feeding and smoking, a
baby should not be exposed to second hand smoke, from
people who are smoking cigarettes around him or her.
Breathing second hand smoke poses health hazards,
including respiratory illness, stunted development, and
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS.
While most people are aware of the health risks
associated with cigarette smoking, including the
development of lung, lip, mouth, and tongue cancer, many
people continue to smoke and allow others to smoke
around them.
If a mother smokes cigarettes, she is advised to quit.
However, she is still advised to breast feed her baby, as
many experts agree that the benefits of breast feeding
outweigh the consequences of smoking. A mother can still
enjoy the benefits of breast feeding, even if she smokes.
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