Pregnancy
Quitting at any time during pregnancy reduces the harm to your baby. However, planning to quit as early as you can means a better start in life for your baby.
Every puff of a cigarette has an immediate negative effect on the baby. Carbon monoxide replaces some of the oxygen in the blood, and nicotine also reduces the flow of blood through the umbilical cord.
Your health care professional will ask you about smoking, and will offer you a Carbon Monoxide (CO) screening breath test to measure – using a ‘smokerlyzer‘. The smokerlyzer will detect if you have been exposed to unsafe levels of CO from smoke or other sources, including faulty cooking and heating appliances.
Ask your healthcare professional about advice for using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in pregnancy and when breastfeeding.