Best Way to Change Your Unhealthy Habits during Pregnancy

Lifestyle habits that are not healthy include smoking, using alcohol or other drugs, overeating and undereating, and not taking steps to alle­viate stress. If you feel you have some unhealthy habits, the first thing for you to understand is that you don’t have to go it alone. There are resources available to help you change.

Smoking and Pregnancy

By now, everyone knows the dangers of smoking. Health problems from smoking can occur even if you don’t smoke but live or work around someone who does. What you might not know is that smok­ing affects women differently than men. It can alter hormone levels, which in turn can affect fertility, cause miscarriages, and lead to early menopause. Smoking can interfere with your baby’s use of vitamin B, which is necessary for normal harmone production.

Smoking has a dramatically dangerous effect on the fetus. When a pregnant woman inhales cigarette smoke, the carbon monoxide in cig­arettes decreases the oxygen in her blood. Therefore, there is less oxy­gen getting to the baby, oxygen that’s vital to the baby’s development. Babies born to women who smoke may have respiratory problems, sleep problems, learning disorders, and are generally smaller in size. And being smaller in stature and weight can mean an increased sus­ceptibility to diseases and even to death.

Getting Help with Quitting

We know that to stop smoking is not easy. But you can do it. Want­ing to be pregnant and have a healthy baby should be an extra incen­tive. Get help from others if your own efforts fail. Ask former smokers what worked for them, and get information from health care providers. Talk with your doctor about steps to help you quit or decrease your smoking before you’re pregnant. Make it your goal to have stopped smoking at least three months before trying to conceive.

If you’re unable to quit beforehand, it’s important to realize that at least cutting down on smoking during the pregnancy—or better, stop­ping altogether—can still be beneficial. Any decrease in the amount of smoke in your lungs may mean more oxygen can get to your baby.

Here are some suggestions to try if you’re not pregnant. Try talking to your doctor about:

•  A smoking cessation class.
•  A prescription for the nicotine patch, which contains time-released nicotine transferred through your skin. This specifically should not be used during pregnancy. The patch will maintain the amount of nicotine your body craves without the smoke and other toxins.
•  A medication often used as an antidepressant is thought to decrease the craving for nicotine (also specifically not to be used during pregnancy).

Alcohol and Drugs

You may enjoy a glass of wine with dinner or a beer at the end of the workday or at the end of a busy week. You may even smoke marijuana occasionally. You may be wondering how harmful these habits are. The answer is: If you are contemplating having a baby, any amount of alcohol or illicit drug is not advisable because they can impact a pregnancy dramatically. Studies have shown that the heavy use of alcohol or occasional bingeing may cause developmental problems in a fetus’s major organs. And as well as adversely affecting your baby’s health, the use of drugs can affect the way your body handles pregnancy and your ability to care for your baby.

Getting Help with Quitting

The most important time to stop use of alcohol or drugs is before you try to conceive. And then you should plan to abstain from these chem­icals throughout your pregnancy. It may be hard to stop completely. Giving up a habit you’ve had for some time may cause you some stress. But the stress of pregnancy may make it even more difficult to stop these habits. As with smoking, it’s easier to handle the stress of quit­ting before you’re pregnant. Ask your partner to join you in abstain­ing so you can support each other. Remind yourself repeatedly that by giving up drugs or alcohol during your pregnancy, you’re doing every­thing you can to have a healthy baby.

In your effort to stop taking drugs or alcohol, you may discover you have an addiction. In fact, addiction to illicit drugs or alcohol is an ill­ness and will require specific medical treatment by a specialist. If you suspect you may have an addiction problem, get help from your health care provider.