Will a pregnant smokers baby be born addicted to nicotine?

Well, my mother did not smoke when pregnant with me, and I smoke. I remember quite clearly it was a conscious decision i made at age 16, to start smoking cannabis, then about a year later i started with tobacco too.

As for babies being addicted, i dont think so, i think that only happens with nasty crack cocain and what have you. but im no doctor, i could be wrong.

I heard that babies can have withdrawal when they’re first born, but I don’t know if that’s with cigarettes or alcohol or what. But I think it makes sense.

It’s really easy to look up the effects of smoking during pregnancy, but usually it focuses on potential problems and not on the infant’s addiction and withdrawal. I did find this blog entry from a nurse. It’s not a scientific study with controls or a large enough sample to be anything more than anecdotal evidence, so keep that in mind.

I’ve also heard of doctors advising women not to attempt to quit when they are pregnant because the stress could be more harmful to the baby than the cigarettes. However, I think women are encouraged to cut back on the smoking drastically. I have a friend who smoked two or three cigarettes a day when she was pregnant, and her son was born healthy, with no withdrawal symptoms. He was also bigger than average. I’d imagine the amount a pregnant woman smokes would make a difference. The heavier the smoker, the more the baby will be affected.

This article talks about a study that found people whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were more likely to become addicted to nicotine later in life than babies whose mothers did not smoke while pregnant. It would be difficult to prove that smoking during pregnancy increased those odds, since even kids who grow up with smokers but weren’t exposed to nicotine in the womb are also more likely to be smokers later in life.

Now for my own anecdotal evidence. :) Both of my parents smoked, but my mom says she quit each time she was pregnant. She managed to hide the fact that she smoked for many years, and I didn’t catch on until I was in high school. My dad always smoked around us, in the house and in the car. My brother and I didn’t think much of it, but it was sometimes annoying. Neither of us had health problems growing up that you’d associate with second-hand smoke. My brother now smokes quite a bit. I don’t. I did go through a “smoking when drinking” phase in college, but fortunately never smoked enough to become addicted.

My mother-in-law smoked through both of her pregnancies. My husband and his sister are quite healthy, and as far as I know neither of them had health problems when they were babies or kids. I don’t know how much my mother-in-law smoked, but I do know my husband and his sister were smallish babies: under six pounds. Edited to add: My sister-in-law never smoked, but my husband did for years. He first quit when we were expecting our daughter, and after backsliding a few times finally managed to kick the habit for good. He never smoked at home after we had children. I don’t understand how anyone could, now that the effects of it are so well-known.

There are a lot of well-documented risks associated with smoking while pregnant, as well as exposing infants and children to second-hand smoke. I hope the women you see have at least cut way back on the smoking and will refrain from smoking around their babies. It’s one of the biggest risk factors for SIDS. :(

Anything that enters the mother’s bloodstream passes into the fetus, including all of the nasty byproducts. This would include nicotine, which is a powerful vasoconstrictor. Babies born to women who smoke have a much higher likelihood of lower birth weight and premature birth.

This article has some good information. I found the following paragraph most disturbing:

“The most serious complications — including stillbirth, premature delivery, and low birth weight — can be chalked up to the fact that nicotine and carbon monoxide work together to reduce your baby’s supply of oxygen. Nicotine chokes off oxygen by narrowing blood vessels throughout your body, including the ones in the umbilical cord. It’s a little like forcing your baby to breathe through a narrow straw. To make matters worse, the red blood cells that carry oxygen start to pick up molecules of carbon monoxide instead. Suddenly, that narrow straw doesn’t even hold as much oxygen as it should.”

So if you smoke while you’re pregnant, you’re basically suffocating your baby.

I’ve always thought the forming baby exposed to nicotine (or alcohol/drugs) would have a tolerance and even chemical craving that could be triggered by exposure later on but I don’t know for sure.

My mother smoked when pregnant with me in the late 60’s. She said it was looked down on not so much for health reasons but as being “unladylike” which is probably why she wanted to do it and buck social feminization… great choice, eh. Anyways, I was born healthy and large, avoided several childhood diseases, rarely sick and hated cigarettes; for awhile.

As a teen I started to smoke and have been an on and off smoker since. My lungs are damaged, I had a stint of yearly pneumonias over a period of 7 yrs, I get super cranky if I don’t smoke at least a little bit of a cigarette in the morning and in the evening. To me, this feels like addict behavior since I think about smoking that little bit all god damned day. Go figure if it’s in utero biased or not?

MissAusten, excellent answer. john

Well, my mother smoked the whole time I was gestating. I believe she stopped for my two siblings, if my memory serves.

To this day, I am disgusted by cigarettes. I’m also about 10 inches shorter than everyone else in my family.

By brother smokes, my sister doesn’t.

@IchtheosaurusRex actually some things do not cross the placental barrier.

My parents were never smokers, I became one, but my brother did not. IMO, it depends on who you associate with, not who you are related to….it’s a social disease.

I had to quit smoking while I was pregnant, it was actually quite easy, since it made me physically sick to smoke anyways.