Can I smoke while breastfeeding?

Smoking is a scourge on a planetary scale. This fact was recognized by many public and professional organizations. You can verify this by looking at WHO statistics. But the saddest thing is that in recent years there has clearly been a tendency toward greater exposure to this addiction of the female population. If earlier with the help of a cigarette young men were approved in adulthood, today young girls destroy youth and health with nicotine.

But, probably, the worst thing is a young mother with a stroller, carelessly starting up puffs of cigarette smoke. Although both adults and even very young children have heard about the dangers of smoking, let us try once more to examine this problem in detail. True, we will do this from a slightly different position, namely, try to answer the question - how compatible are smoking and breastfeeding.

Illness or habit

If in a domestic respect, smoking is considered a bad habit, then doctors associate this problem with a pathological dependence. Moreover, the longer a person smokes, the more difficult it is for him to part with this dubious pleasure. Therefore, a nursing mother should seriously think about the damage that she can cause to a child’s health by smoking just one cigarette. After all, nicotine is extremely dangerous for a little man because of its high toxicity. The lethal dose of this harmful substance is only 1 mg per kilogram of adult weight.

For example, to stop the cardiac activity of a woman weighing 55 kilograms, it is enough to smoke about 55 cigarettes. And this is without taking into account nicotine in tobacco smoke. But, in addition to nicotine, cigarettes still have a lot of life-threatening components. Scientists have found that every heavy smoker, paying tribute to the habit, deprives himself of 25-30 years of life.

Of course, not everyone has such a stamina that they can quit smoking at once. But, if the nursing mother is not yet able to abandon the addiction, she should at least adhere to the rules that can reduce the risks for the child.

What is the harm of tobacco products

Even the smallest children know about the negative impact of smoking on the human body, because the system of sanitary-educational work in the post-Soviet space is built, in principle, not bad. But at the same time, people continue to smoke, and representatives of the younger generation regularly replenish the ranks of smokers. It is regrettable, but among fans of the "hellish" habit there are many pregnant women and nursing mothers.

Knowing about the harmful effects of cigarettes on the emerging defenseless organism, they cannot, or maybe they do not want to give up smoking at least temporarily. Therefore, it is probably worth recalling once again that each cigarette is a composition of deadly substances. Each cigarette has such familiar substances:

1. Butane is the liquid used to fill lighters.
2. Nicotine is a substance present in insecticides used to kill insects.
3. Stearic acid - it is added to wax in the manufacture of candles.
4. Arsenic is the most famous potent poison.
5. Cadmium - present in batteries.
6. Toluene is a technical solvent.

This is only a small part of the four thousand components that can be found in a single cigarette. And there is acetic acid, methanol and dyes. Probably, it is not worth continuing to list toxic substances that enter the body when smoking.Moreover, seven dozen agents out of 4 thousand can cause cancer.

But the most important thing is that a smoker does not only voluntarily poison his body, he threatens the lives of those around him. A smoking mother also slowly kills her own child, because a baby becomes a passive smoker at her whim. The kid is forced to inhale deadly substances, because he simply has no choice.

Consequences of smoking

A nursing mother who is unable to part with a cigarette must be aware that within half an hour after she takes another “tobacco dose”, nicotine enters the bloodstream. Then, after a few minutes, it is found in breast milk. Therefore, the quality of breast milk of smoking mothers is different from the product that children receive, whose mothers are not prone to this addiction. These differences are expressed in the following:

1. In women who smoke, prolactin is produced in smaller quantities, hence the decrease in the volume of breast milk produced.
2. There are few vitamins in such milk, the number of useful enzymes is also reduced, but the most important thing is that there are practically no protective antibodies that the baby needs in the first year of life.

It is proved that children from smokers' families are much weaker, they often suffer from colds and asthma. Due to the fact that tobacco smoke negatively affects brain activity, such children are lagging behind in physical development, poorly absorb material in school.

Smoking and Women's Health

Smoking adversely affects the health status of the woman herself. During pregnancy, the resources of her body are depleted. Therefore, after the birth of a mother, mommy needs to restore strength and strengthen the nervous system. To do this, she needs a complete diet and a normal lifestyle. But, if instead of adherence to a healthy regimen, a woman takes up a cigarette, then all those having problems will only get worse.

Consequences for the child

Due to the fact that nicotine freely enters the mother’s milk, and then into the baby’s body, it begins to have a negative effect on the processes occurring in the tiny body. The first under the destructive effect of the toxin is the baby's cardiovascular system. Nicotine causes various dysfunctions of the main organ, and the child may develop heart failure over time. Entering a small organism even in minimal doses, nicotine disrupts the normal rhythm of the heart, which subsequently manifests itself in various forms of arrhythmia, but tachycardia is more often observed in young children. For the body of the baby, these are extremely dangerous phenomena that carry a direct threat to his life.

But Mom’s addiction to smoking makes not only a small heart suffer, these children also have the following disorders:

1. Sleep disturbance - due to the fact that nicotine destroys the baby’s nervous system, which makes the child restless.
2. Weight loss, which is caused by a decrease in appetite and poor nutritional qualities of breast milk.
3. A predisposition to allergic manifestations - the baby's body reacts negatively to any new food product (a rash appears on the skin, other reactions are possible).
4. Dysfunctions from the intestines make themselves felt by increased gas formation, constipation, sometimes there is vomiting.
5. Frequent diseases of the upper respiratory tract and pneumonia are a familiar companion of children whose mothers smoke.
6. The mental development of children also suffers, they lag behind peers in many ways: later they sit down, begin to walk, talk

But this is not all the disastrous consequences of one bad habit. It has been scientifically proven that most of the children whose mothers smoked during their gestation and lactation subsequently also become heavy smokers.In other words, in these people, nicotine addiction is formed in infancy. And, probably, the most monstrous result is a predisposition to oncological pathologies. Children of smoking mothers are also more at risk of sudden death in infancy.

Cigarettes and breast milk

Smoking causes tremendous damage to the female body, which nature itself is determined to give birth and raise children. You can reduce the danger only by completely abandoning the pernicious “pleasure”. There is simply no other, more convenient way.

Some women who are not able to quit smoking solve this problem by transferring the baby to artificial feeding. Of course, if you have to choose from two evils, then this is a less dangerous option. Although the baby, especially in the first six months of life, really needs breast milk, because it is it that provides the baby's immune capabilities.

If the mother continues to combine smoking with feeding the baby, then her lactation will be reduced, and the period of breastfeeding itself, at best, will last up to 4-6 months. In addition, breast milk flavored with nicotine has a characteristic bitter aftertaste. Therefore, the baby often themselves refuse poor-quality nutrition in the first days after birth.

How to reduce risks

If a lactating woman is not able to give up smoking, then it is worth at least reducing the number of cigarettes smoked per day. The following recommendations will help reduce the damaging effects of tobacco toxins:

1. The number of cigarettes should not exceed 5 pieces. Moreover, they should be smoked during the day, because at night the process of producing breast milk is activated.
2. It is necessary to indulge in a bad habit after feeding the baby so that there remains an interval of at least two hours before the next application to the chest.
3. It is strictly forbidden to smoke in the room where the baby is.
4. After smoking even one cigarette, be sure to brush your teeth and wash your hands thoroughly.
5. High-calorie, vitamin-rich food will help mom compensate for the loss of the body associated with a bad habit.
6. To regularly cleanse the body, a smoking woman must drink more fluid.
7. Long walks with the baby in the fresh air will drown out the desire to smoke.

All of these recommendations can only temporarily change the situation for the better. A nursing mother must, for the sake of a healthy future for her baby, gather all her will and give up smoking forever. After all, cigarettes are poison poisoning a defenseless child. And the main purpose of every mother is to protect her child from any danger.

Video: smoking while breastfeeding