Student Choice 2

Tara Link

Haley Stokes

English 1010

April 14

Student Choice

(Free writing)

Smoking during pregnancy is harmful for the baby in many different ways. Smoking while pregnant can affect different babies in different ways. In some cases there is no bad affects on the baby, but that is not always certain. A lot of babies get asthma, which can affect their life in many different ways. Some children even become addicted to cigarettes at a young age because their mothers smoked while pregnant. Smoking while pregnant can affect speech-processing ability in newborn infants, smoking is known to adversely affect development of the central nervous system. Maternal smoking is also associated with lower verbal scores and poorer performance on specific language/auditory tests. Some women who are smokers aren’t able to quite because they don’t have a support system, or their spouse or boyfriend is a smoker and does not support or quite smoking either. A lot of women are not educated in the affects of smoking on their unborn baby. It is very important to get the news out about the harmful affects of smoking on babies. If the news is out about it and young mothers understand the risks then I believe the number of mothers who smoke would go down.