Smoking and drinking during pregnancy

Giving up for good

Give your baby the healthiest start in life

It’s well known that smoking and drinking during pregnancy can affect your baby’s health. But it’s not just mums-to-be who need to make sacrifices – smoking near a pregnant partner can be damaging too. Giving up cigarettes and cutting down on alcohol isn’t easy, but it will mean you feel healthier and fitter when your baby arrives. Our Careline team are here to help if you need some support.

Why give up smoking?

Smoking is known to have detrimental effects on an unborn baby’s health, so it’s a good idea for both you and your partner to give up.

When your pregnant partner is exposed to passive smoke, your baby takes in a range of harmful chemical substances, including:

Nicotine – known to constrict blood vessels, affecting the uterine and placental blood flow and increasing your baby’s blood pressure and heart rate
Carbon monoxide – binds to haemoglobin in the blood, meaning that blood cells carry less oxygen resulting in a low birthweight
Tar – a cancer-causing substance that can irritate the lungs

Of course, once your baby has arrived, any smoke they inhale will have the same negative effect on their health. So by giving up smoking now, your baby will be getting a healthier start in life, and you might be able to completely kick the habit.

Why give up alcohol?

Sometimes your partner might have had a drink early on in pregnancy before realising they’ve conceived. But after they’ve discovered they are pregnant it’s recommended they give up completely.

The Department of Health recommends that if you’re pregnant, or planning to become pregnant, you should avoid alcohol altogether.

If your partner is pregnant your alcohol consumption won’t have a direct effect on your child, but by giving up or cutting down on alcohol you’ll be offering some valuable moral support to her..

If you’re cutting down, rather than fully giving up, it’s a good idea to stick to the recommended weekly alcohol intake, which is 17 standard drinks for men and 11 for women.

What is a "standard drink" ?

According to HSE guidelines a standard drink consists of:

a pub measure of spirits (35.5ml)
a small glass of wine (12.5% volume)
a half pint of normal beer
an alcopop (275ml bottle)

A bottle of 12.5% alcohol wine has about seven standard drinks.

Next steps

Here are some handy tips for giving up smoking and drinking:

Set a date to quit and stick to it. It helps to have a fixed goal
Exercise can help curb cravings
Fidget and chew gum. Keeping your mouth and hands busy will stop the habitual reach for the cigarettes
List the reasons you are quitting and cutting down, and look back at them when you’re tempted
Think positive; it makes all the difference, and remember you are doing this to help your partner and her pregnancy.

If you’re finding it difficult to quit smoking, you can also visit the HSE website for more information https://www2.hse.ie/quit-smoking/

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