The number of women who smoke is growing all the time. What can a doctor say about this? Tobacco contains nicotine – a substance that is poisonous to the body, as it has a harmful effect on the heart and blood vessels. In a small amount, the effect of nicotine is manifested only during the first lighting, later the body gets used to the poison and transfers an increasing amount of it. Of course, it is impossible to increase the amount of nicotine administered to infinity, so that at a certain concentration, nicotine poisoning can occur.    

Smoking has other harmful effects as well. If smoke is inhaled into the lungs instead of fresh air, then the pulmonary vesicles (alveoli) will contain more smoke than air. The smoke contains carbon dioxide, which, when combined with the dye of red blood cells, will give carboxyhemoglobin. The latter is somewhat different from oskigemoglobin, which introduces oxygen into the body, which is necessary for life! This is a compound that the body has difficulty getting rid of and which is the reason for its malnutrition. Smoking while breastfeeding can cause inadequate milk production and reduce the baby’s immunity. In addition, the child does not like the smoke, he turns away from the mother who smells of smoke, and he does not like the milk soaked in smoke. As a result, the child is prematurely weaned, thereby causing great harm to his health. Every conscientious woman should stop smoking immediately after her pregnancy is established, and not smoke until the end of breastfeeding. Naturally, we do not smoke where the baby is, even if we have already stopped breastfeeding him. The child should not inhale tobacco smoke or stay in a smoky room, where his lungs are filled not with the fresh air necessary for his development, but with the products of tobacco combustion. A child of smoking parents is usually weak, nervous, often sick, does not tolerate various diseases, sometimes his skin and eyes are affected, in especially severe cases, there are deviations in mental development. Therefore, a breastfeeding mother should not smoke.