While studying how to become a sonographer it may be beneficial to learn about different issues that will be affecting your patients.  One common question asked of sonographers by expecting mothers concerns smoking while pregnant, or a fetus being exposed to smoke.  Although expecting mothers may be tempted to just cut down, quitting smoking is the best approach to recommend.  The fewer cigarettes smoked by an expecting mother, the better.  The carbon monoxide, nicotine and other substances that are inhaled while smoking pass out of the lungs, into the blood stream, and cross the placenta with each cigarette smoked.  Nicotine makes the baby’s heart beat faster as it struggles to get oxygen, which can affect a fetus’s growth rate.  Smoking can also increase the rate of miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight.  Exposure to tobacco makes a baby more likely to suffer from conditions such as asthma, and chest infections after birth.  There seems to be a higher rate of SIDS if an expecting mother or her partner smokes.  Which brings us to the next question….if you live with a smoker will it affect your baby?  Yes.  If you live with a smoker, you will be inhaling thousands of toxic carcinogenic chemicals that are released into the air around you from the burning end of the cigarette and smoke exhaled in the mother’s environment.  Several studies have confirmed that passive inhalation of second hand smoke can result in health problems, and increase the risk of miscarriage and premature birth.  There have also been studies confirming increased risk of central nervous system problems with fetus/children who have been subjected to second hand smoke.  Smoking is not safe for mothers who are expecting, their fetuses, even when it is just second hand.

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