Smoking is always a bad idea. It’s a particularly bad idea when you’re a teenager. An even worse idea when you’re a child. When you’re a baby? Come on, babies don’t smoke. Errr, they can. If a pregnant woman (or girl) smokes cigarettes, the junk inside her is passed straight to junior.

Two key ingredients of tobacco smoke can have a huge impact on a foetus’ development – carbon monoxide and nicotine.

Carbon monoxide – Haemoglobin is the protein in the blood that carries oxygen around the body. This oxygen allows the body’s cells to breathe and keeps them healthy. Unfortunately, carbon monoxide attaches to haemoglobin more easily that oxygen does. If carbon monoxide’s taking a ride, oxygen can’t: cells starve.

Nicotine pushes your blood pressure right up and makes your heart work harder and faster. It can force your heart to beat 33 beats more every minute! When you’re pregnant, nicotine goes straight into your baby’s system and makes his or her heart work harder too.

If your baby’s cells are starving, your baby won’t grow properly and his, or her, heart will be forced to work even harder. If you’re lucky, your baby will be born smaller and weaker than he or she should have been. He or she might have asthma or a cleft lip and/or palate. But there’s a real risk that your baby will be born with serious health problems, like a weak heart and weak lungs. That’s if your baby’s born at all. Smoking puts so much strain on your baby that he/she may not survive your pregnancy. You could suffer a spontaneous abortion or your baby could be stillborn.

So, your baby doesn’t have any choice. If you smoke, he or she smokes, and while your body can probably handle the health consequences for a few years at least before smoke kills you, your baby’s might not be able to. Risking your health is one thing, risking your child’s…