Smoking and Pregnancy

Although not as high as the past, 13% of women currently smoke during pregnancy. Smoking during pregnancy can have extremely negative effects on both the mother and fetus.

Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of an early birth by about 30 percent and raises the possibilty of certain birth defects, including a cleft lip and/or cleft palate.

Risk from smoking during pregnancy increases the more the woman smokes. The good news is when you stop, your risks begin to go down immediately.

The faster a woman quits smoking, the quicker her fetus's chances of dodging serious medical complications. Although it is hard to quit smoking there are many programs and ways to quit.