Smoking and pregnancy

Giving up smoking during pregnancy will not only boost your baby’s development, but help improve his health right into adulthood.

When you become pregnant you have a more important motivation to give up than ever. You might think this will make it easier to quit, but giving up smoking is tough whenever you choose to do it. There is support out there for you to help boost your chances of success.

Read on to find out about the effects of cigarette smoke on you and your baby, dispel some of the myths about smoking and pregnancy, and find out about getting help with quitting smoking for good.

Try our cost calculator below: see how much money you could save if you stopped smoking, and what you could buy instead:

If you don't smoke, but are exposed to cigarette smoke because your partner, or someone else you know smokes, you can find out more about the risks of environmental smoke. This information may help you to persuade your partner to give up, or to make sure you and your baby are not exposed.

Why you should give up

Research shows that smoking in pregnancy is directly linked to problems including:

miscarriage
premature birth
low birth weight
stillbirth
cot death.

The good news is that it’s never too late to benefit from quitting smoking. In fact, because the most harmful effects of smoking during pregnancy occurs in the second and third trimester, giving up smoking in the first three months of pregnancy reduces your risk of having a low birth weight baby to that of a non smoker.

However, giving up at any time during pregnancy will help give your baby the best start in life.

Heather, 1 year smoke free

"I used to smoke 30-40 cigarettes a day which not only had a detrimental affect on my health but it burnt a great big hole in my pocket! When I found out I was pregnant, I immediately quit.

"If I carried on smoking it could have serious side effects. I figured, what’s the point in me carrying on?"

Read our questions about smoking and pregnancy.

Talking to your midwife about smoking

Your midwife will ask lots of questions about your lifestyle, including whether you smoke or have recently quit, or if someone in your household smokes. Smoking in pregnancy is something midwives have to discuss with all the women they deal with, so don’t feel that you are being singled out.

If you smoke, or have quit within the past two weeks, your midwife will refer you to a Pregnancy Stop Smoking advisor at your local branch of the NHS Stop Smoking Services

Watch our interview with Annette Briley, Tommy's consultant midwife on smoking when pregnant.

Carbon monoxide breath testing

Your midwife may offer you a carbon monoxide (CO) breath test. This indicates you and your baby’s level of exposure to this harmful gas. See our effects of smoke on pregnancy page for more information on why carbon monoxide is so dangerous.

The test is administered by blowing into a machine which measures the level of carbon monoxide in your breath. Some machines can also calculate the level of CO getting to your baby. The higher your level of exposure to CO, the higher your CO reading will be.

The reading is given in COppm, which is the number of CO molecules in a million parts of air. Women with a reading of 7ppm or higher may be referred to stop smoking services.

In this section

Diet and nutrition
Managing your weight
Exercise
Smoking
Alcohol
Mental health
Healthy working pregnancy
Labour and birth