However, the smoking rates among women are going down more slowly than among men. In fact, among high school seniors, teenage girls now smoke as much or more as teenage boys. When young women who smoke start to think about having children, they also need to think about quitting smoking. The best time to quit is when a woman plans to get pregnant in the near future. Or she needs to think about quitting after she finds out that she is pregnant, which will be better for her own health and for that of her baby.
Pregnancy is a great time to quit smoking and stay quit after the baby is born.
If a woman smokes during pregnancy she takes a big chance with her baby's health. There is a greater chance that she will lose the baby during pregnancy. The baby could also be born too early, before the lungs are ready, so he or she will have trouble breathing. Babies often weigh less when the mother smokes. And a baby that weighs too little is often sick with lots of health problems.