Smoking - When a woman smokes during pregnancy, her baby is subjected to dangerous chemicals including carbon monoxide, tar and nicotine. Nicotine makes blood vessels constrict, thus allowing smaller amounts of oxygen and nutrients to reach the fetus. Carbon monoxide reduces the quantity of oxygen available to the baby.

Women who smoke while pregnant are more inclined to experience certain problems:

• Vaginal bleeding
• Ectopic pregnancy
• Stillbirth
• Problems with how the placenta attaches to the uterus
• A baby with a low-birth-weight (typically weighing less than 5½ pounds)

Smoking harms the baby following birth, as well. The baby might inhale harmful quantities of smoke from nearby cigarette smoking (secondhand smoke). Breathing secondhand smoke raises the chance of asthma and SIDS – sudden infant death syndrome. The less smoking a woman does, the less harm it will do. Reducing or stopping smoking at any time in the course of the pregnancy is preferable to not quitting at all. Even so, quitting before pregnancy is by far the absolute best option to take for both the mother and baby.

Alcohol Whenever an expectant mother consumes alcohol, it rapidly reaches her fetus. The identical quantity of alcohol that’s in her blood is also in the baby’s blood. With an adult, the liver breaks down the alcohol. But a baby’s liver is not developed enough to do this. As a result, alcohol is considerably more damaging to a fetus as compared to to an adult. The more alcohol a pregnant woman consumes, the greater danger it poses to her baby.

Alcohol consumption during any point of the pregnancy can lead to problems. Alcohol consumption raises the chances for having to deal with a preterm baby or a miscarriage. Alcohol abuse when pregnant is a number one cause of mental retardation.

Significant alcohol consumption during pregnancy can result in fetal alcohol syndrome. This is a pattern of serious mental, physical and behavioral problems in babies who had been subjected to alcohol during pregnancy. Poor diet, smoking and drug use, may also be a factor in how seriously the baby is impacted by fetal alcohol syndrome.

This is a drug free environment. All patients are subject to be drug tested. Positive drug test may result in an immediate dismissal from being a patient at this practice.

You will be asked if you have used any illegal drugs in the past 30 days.