Questions and Answers

It really is never too late to stop smoking in pregnancy, but the sooner you stop the better. Stopping now will give your baby the very best chance of being healthy.

As soon as you stop smoking your baby will be safe from the harmful chemicals that you inhale from tobacco, especially carbon monoxide (CO) which gets into your blood stream and reduces your baby’s supply of oxygen.

As well as giving your baby the best chance at being healthy, stopping smoking is also really good for your health too! As well as reducing your chances of developing serious illnesses and health conditions, it can improve your skin, nails, hair and teeth. Your clothes and hair will smell better and after a few days, your sense of smell will improve too.

"Lynne was lovely and very easy to talk to. She made me feel comfortable and not judged at all. She’s extremely helpful and supportive" - previous service user

Stopping smoking won’t harm your baby, it's one of the best things you can do to protect your baby. You may think a quit attempt will induce stress but it's not always as hard as you might think.

In reality, smoking causes stress on your developing baby because each time you smoke your baby’s oxygen levels are immediately reduced. This means that their heart must work much harder to cope with this lack of oxygen.

You may think that you feel calmer when you smoke but this is just your body’s reaction to the nicotine that it is craving.

When you smoke your blood pressure and heart rate increase. If you stop smoking completely your body will no longer crave the nicotine that you get from smoking tobacco, making you feel less stressed in general.

Pregnant women who have quit smoking have told us that they feel calmer and less stressed than they did when they used to smoke.

You may find it hard to stop smoking, but once you have been smokefree for a few days you will find it much easier. We can also provide you with a prescription for Nicotine replacement therapy which is free during pregnancy when you are using the Stop Smoking Service and can help you beat the cravings.

You might feel as though quitting smoking is going to be too hard for you, but we can support you and help make it easier. Many other pregnant women feel the same as you at first but once we've helped them to quit, they have told us “it’s not as hard as I thought it was going to be”. Women also tell us they feel so much happier and less guilty when they have quit for good.

• When you smoke nicotine reaches your brain in about 10 seconds, this causes chemicals to be released in your brain giving your body a feeling of instant relief. However, this feeling does not last long.
• When you haven’t smoked for a short while your body starts to crave nicotine. You are likely to feel tired and anxious and in need of another cigarette, when you smoke again your brain reacts to the nicotine hit giving you that temporary feeling of relief. If you were a non-smoker, your body would not crave nicotine.
• Craving nicotine can make it hard to stop smoking, your body is likely to experience withdrawal symptoms as it is not being given the nicotine it has got used to. You may experience symptoms such as headaches, nausea, mood swings and irritability, but the good news is that these side effects will pass as your body normalises to reduced levels of nicotine.
• You can reduce these effects by using nicotine replacement therapy.

"There were no judgements; we were given the relevant information and the tools to stop. I have never felt pressured to quit and our stop date was all on my terms. I feel that Annette had a real understanding of the difficulty of stopping smoking. She has always made me feel very comfortable explaining hurdles. Great service, nice to know someone is always there to help." - previous service user.

The danger of just cutting down means that you are likely to inhale the smoke harder and breathe in higher levels of carbon monoxide (CO), a toxic gas. CO from cigarette smoke travels to the baby through your bloodstream and restricts their oxygen supply.

Cutting down may seem ideal and a start on the road to being a non-smoker, but there is no such thing as a ‘safe’ cigarette or a ‘safe’ number to smoke in pregnancy. Reducing how much you smoke may not make it easier to quit.

You may have decided to cut down because you are worried about your baby’s health but the only way to make sure that your baby is not being affected is to stop smoking completely.

If you stop completely the CO will disappear out of your body in a day and you will eventually stop craving nicotine. However, if you carry on smoking and just smoke less you are likely to still experience cravings and may feel anxious and pre-occupied about when you can next smoke.

Using nicotine replacement can really help as your level of nicotine can be reduced slowly until you no longer need any.

We can help you quit; you don’t have to do it alone.

"Really friendly, made me feel at ease. Annette was lovely, I felt very supported" - previous service user

The average price you are likely to spend on a pack of 20 cigarettes from a licensed UK retailer is £12.64. If you smoke 10 a day, this adds up to £44.24 per week, around £176 per month and almost £2300 per year!

For the cost of about 3 weeks of smoking you could buy a video baby monitor.

For the cost of less than a year’s worth of cigarettes, you could kit out your baby’s entire nursery (cot bed, mattress, wardrobe, changing table and even a nursing chair) or you could splash out on a brand-new top of the range pram and still have money left over.

You would also have peace of mind that you have given your baby the best chance of being healthy.

Don’t forget about you! We know that stopping smoking isn’t always easy, so try to put something aside to reward yourself with for what you have achieved. You could get your nails or hair done, buy some new makeup or a new nail polish, go out for a meal or to the cinema. You deserve a treat!

Here are some more examples of what you could buy for the price of the pack of 20 cigarettes:

• 1 pack of 20 cigarettes = 1 baby blanket
• 3 newborn sleep suits
• 6 body suits
• About 166 newborn nappies which could last around 2 weeks

Smoking or being exposed to second-hand smoke during pregnancy significantly increases your risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or having a premature or unwell baby. Quitting smoking is the most effective way to protect your child from the harms of tobacco smoke.

Yes. Your midwife should:

1. Provide you with information about the risks of smoking and benefits of quitting for you and your baby.
2. Refer you to the Coventry specialist Stop Smoking in Pregnancy Team. This friendly team can provide you with support and advice via telephone/video and can send you stop smoking medications by post. They should also be able to give you advice about using an e-cigarette to quit smoking.
3. You can call this team on 07904 984620, or text us to request a call back.

For some more information on keeping well during your pregnancy click here

E-cigarettes are new and there are still some things we do not know. However, current evidence on e-cigarettes indicates they are much less risky than smoking.

Cigarettes deliver nicotine along with thousands of harmful chemicals. E-cigarettes allow you to inhale nicotine through a vapour rather than smoke. By itself, nicotine is relatively harmless.

E-cigarettes do not produce tar or carbon monoxide, the 2 main toxins in cigarette smoke. Carbon monoxide is particularly harmful to developing babies. The vapour from an e-cigarette does contain some of the potentially harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke, but at much lower levels.

If using an e-cigarette helps you to stop smoking, it is much safer for you and your baby than continuing to smoke.

Unlike nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), such as patches or gum, e-cigarettes are not available on an NHS prescription. If you want to use an e-cigarette, you can still get free expert help from a stop smoking adviser.

You can use nicotine replacement products (e.g. patches or gum) or e-cigarettes to protect yourself and your family from harmful cigarette smoke. If you need to smoke, you should take at least 7 steps outside to stop smoke drifting inside.

Normally, you can access our services by being referred by your midwife but if you want to, call us FREE on: 07904 984620 and tell us you are pregnant and would like to quit smoking, we will put you in touch with your local Stop Smoking in Pregnancy Advisor, and a home visit will be arranged.