Alcohol and tobacco use in pregnancy - Essay Example

A cigarette smoker is prone to withdrawal and nicotine addiction which makes the process of quitting smoking much difficult. Addiction is diagnosed when the smoking victim develops frequent use or compulsive seeking symptoms thus uses the substance without considering its adverse implication to health as well as other unwanted consequences. Alcohol on the other hand does not have addictive components in its ingredients. However, it depends with the mental perception of the person drinking. In this case, alcohol can be addictive in a certain capacity but does not have intense symptoms such as withdrawal.

Therefore alcohol may be easy to quit with the right use of the correct mental and physical therapies. Smoking during pregnancy might result to a raise in future heart risk to the child. Mothers who smoke during the pregnancy period reduce the high-density lipoprotein which is also known as cholesterol in the baby’s body system. Cholesterol helps in the protection of the body against heart defects such as stroke and various heart diseases. Tobacco smoking and alcohol drinking have negative implication on the growth of the baby before and after birth.

The weight of the baby after delivery is directly proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked during the pregnancy period (Stockman, 2012). The baby of a smoker may have an estimated weight of between 150 and 250 grams. The infants of smokers experience retardation in all gestation stages. Low birth weight of infants who are depicted to prenatal smoking is connected to low rate tissue development and fat-free masses. The use of alcohol by women during pregnancy has negative implications on the growth of the unborn child.

‘Fetal alcohol effects’ is a model used to refer to the aftermath implication of an infant in reaction to the alcohol in its system which is passed on to it by the alcoholic mother. One of the fetal alcohol effects is developmental delay and retarded