5 tips to eliminating smoking from your life while pregnant

Updated on March 18, 2019
woman 918616 1280

Smoking while pregnant is risky for your unborn baby. It can lead to problems such as low birth weight, and deformities. Even to the mother, it increases risks, with problems like ectopic pregnancies, which can be life-threatening. Unfortunately, quitting smoking can be hard for someone who is already addicted. Some pregnant women even turn to vaping, but this isn’t safe either. That’s because, when one vapes, they still take in nicotine and other harmful substances found in a cigarette. Quitting is the only safe way to go about it. To help you out, here are 5 tips to eliminating smoking from your life while pregnant.

1.    Avoid smokers

Like drinking, smokers tend to get the urge to smoke when around fellow smokers. To reduce this urge, stay away from your smoking buddies.  If possible, hang around people who abhor smoking, and in places where smoking is difficult. For instance, you can hang out with them in their houses, which are more like no smoking zones. If you make this a routine, you can make it through the pregnancy without smoking.

2.    Think about your unborn baby more often

Quitting smoking is not easy. In fact, it can lead to painful side effects that may hinder your daily life. To get over this pain, think of your unborn baby more often. Try and imagine all the bad things that could happen to your unborn baby when you smoke. For instance, your baby might be born deformed, with asthma, and even with a lower level of intelligence. You wouldn’t want any of these to happen to your baby, would you? Now use that as a motivator to keep going, even when the pain of quitting feels unbearable.

3.    Avoid stressful situations

Most smokers tend to crave a cigarette when stressed. It triggers the release of feel-good hormones in the brain, which acts as a coping mechanism. To quit smoking while pregnant, try and avoid stressful situations as much as possible. You can do this by joining self-help groups and hanging around people who love you. By doing this, you avoid situations where stress drives you to crave a smoke.

4.    Seek medical help

For those who find themselves unable to cope with the cravings, seek medical help. Talk to a medical professional and let them give you nicotine replacement drugs. These drugs have been scientifically proven to reduce nicotine cravings, which can be very helpful to a pregnant woman.  Such drugs may have their own side effects, but they are not as bad as the effects of smoking while pregnant.

5.    Find a new hobby

For most people, smoking is connected to social drinking. As such, a smoker who has drinking as their hobby might find it hard to quit. That’s why you need to find new hobbies that don’t involve alcohol. For instance, you can decide to become a sports fan, and spend your weekends at stadiums. You can also find fun in the arts. There are so many hobbies out there that don’t involve drugs.

The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.