Smoking and Pregnancy

Smoking and Pregnancy. Women who smoke have increased risk for conception delay and for both primary and secondary infertility. Women who smoke during pregnancy risk pregnancy complications, premature birth, low birth weight infants, infections, still birth, and infant death. Women who smoke may have a modest increase in risks for ectopic pregnancy (fallopian tube or peritoneal cavity pregnancy) and spontaneous abortion. Studies show a link between smoking and the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) among the offspring of women who smoke during pregnancy.

Currently, roughly one in eight or more than 500,000 women smoke during pregnancy in the United States. Birth complications caused by smoking during pregnancy or prenatal exposure to secondhand smoke result in as much as $2 billion in additional health care costs in the U.S. each year.

According to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, infant respiratory distress syndrome and prematurity/ low birth weight, which can both be caused by maternal smoking, are two of the three most expensive conditions requiring hospital care.

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