Smoking and Pregnancy By: Tarina C.

Introduction  In this presentation, I would like to show you the outcomes and consequences many people suffer with everyday. In Hawaii, there are many mothers who smoke while there are pregnant. Research shows that by ethnicity, Hawaiian mothers have the highest percentage of smokers.

Smoking and Childbirth Smoking has very harmful effects on pregnancy and childbirth. Statistics show that Native Hawaiian mothers have a higher percentage rate than many other ethnic groups.

Fact: The unborn babies of women who smoke during pregnancy get less food as well as oxygen than those of non-smoking pregnant women.

 Premature Birth: A premature birth is when a baby is born to a mother who had been pregnant thirty seven weeks or less.  4.7% of births for Native Hawaiians were premature.  Low Birth Weight: Babies born to pregnant mothers who smoke weigh less on average. Premature babies are usually smaller because they have not fully developed yet.

 Learning Disabilities: The negative effects of smoking while pregnant usually occur in a long term consequence. Researchers say, that children who were born from a smoking mother have more problems with behaving themselves than children of non-smoking mothers.

 Sudden Infant Death Syndrome(SIDS): Sudden Infant Death Syndrome(SIDS) is the sudden, unexpected death of what seems to be a healthy infant. Researchers have found that the exposure to tobacco smoke during as well as after their birth is one of the main factors. Fact: SIDS is one of the leading causes of death for children between the ages of one month to one year.

Conclusion In conclusion to doing research on this topic, I have found that the overall effects of smoking during pregnancy affect many lives. These lives are young infants who do not deserve what their mothers are doing to them and I feel that the pregnant mothers should think twice before putting their children at risk to many harmful outcomes including learning disabilities and premature births.

Bibliography 1. Office of Health Status Monitoring, Department of Health, Vital Statistics System, Births, Bennet AD. Perinatal substance abuse and the drug-exposed neonate. Advance for Nurse Practitioners. 1999; 7(5): Andres RL, Day MC. Perinatal complications associated with maternal tobacco use. Seminars in Neonatalogy. 2000; 5(3): Native Hawaiian Health Care Program. Available at URL: mInfo.htm mInfo.htm