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Smoking While Breastfeeding Is Not Good
from: Karlie BestlerThe decision whether to smoke while breastfeeding is easy because smoking while breastfeeding is bad for both mom and breastfeeding baby. Both mom and breastfeeding baby 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 continue to smoke during pregnancy and while they are breastfeeding babies. In fact, some women smoke while breastfeeding babies.
When it comes to smoking while breastfeeding, breastfeeding mothers should know that smoking while breastfeeding is a dangerous practice that should be avoided. The risk to the breastfeeding baby is compounded if the breastfeeding mother smokes more than 20 cigarettes per day. However, any amount of cigarette smoking is harmful to a breastfeeding baby. The more cigarettes a breastfeeding mother smokes, the more harmful the effects are to her breastfeeding baby.
For some breastfeeding mothers, heavy smoking can reduce a mother's milk supply and on rare occasions can cause symptoms in the breastfeeding baby, including nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. Smoking while breastfeeding means that a breastfeeding mother must choose between smoking and breastfeeding, because the effects of smoking are harmful to her and her breastfeeding baby.
When a breastfeeding mother smokes a cigarette, the nicotine levels in her blood and milk increase and then decrease over a certain period of time. If a breastfeeding mother smokes a cigarette just before or during breastfeeding, the risk to the breastfeeding baby is high. The half-life of the nicotine, the amount of time it takes for half the nicotine to be eliminated from the body is 95 minutes.
When it comes to breastfeeding while smoking, maternal smoking has been linked to early breastfeeding weaning, lowered milk production, and inhibition of the milk ejection or the letdown reflex. Thus, many breastfeeding mothers decide to quit smoking before and during pregnancy for the benefit of their own health and the health of their breastfeeding babies.
Mothers who enjoy breastfeeding and smoking may cause their breastfeeding babies to be fussier than breastfeeding babies whose breastfeeding mothers do not smoke. These breastfeeding babies may even be colicky.
Whether or not a mother is breastfeeding while smoking, a breastfeeding 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 breastfeeding mother smokes cigarettes, she is advised to quit. However, she is still advised to breastfeed her baby as many experts agree that the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh the consequences of smoking. A breastfeeding mother can still enjoy the benefits of breastfeeding, even if she smokes.
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