Smoking while pregnant By: Nathan Burgess and Luke Wade

The Problem.. When mothers smoke cigarettes while being pregnant it can cause many birth defects to the baby. And it is hard for the mothers to quit smoking because they are to addicted and they don’t realize what could happen to the baby.

Evidence/Reasoning A study of research showed the connection of smoking and the amount of birth defects. 12 million babies were affected and 173000 had deformed bodies. Babies born to mothers who smoke have roughly a 30% higher chance of having missing arms and legs or shorted limbs. They also had a higher chance of having cleft lip, cleft palates and abnormal shaped heads. Studies done by Michael Kats medical doctor and professor at Columbia University.

This is a example of a baby who was born to a mother who smoked and is in extensive care because of low birth weight and heart issues. Internal smoking was associated with 27% risk of abnormalities and 9% increased heart risk. It can also cause problems later in life for the baby like decreased lung functions, heart disease and type 2 diabetes and the kid doesn’t even have a choice.

Solution.. Our solution to this problem is that we can prescribe nicotine patches to help reduce the urge to smoke. The nicotine patches are also not as harmful to the baby as smoking would be and it also helps you quit your smoking addiction. You can ask your doctor to prescribe you nicotine patches.

Rational.. This will work because the nicotine patches act as a alternative of smoking cigarettes. So this will get rid of most of the harmful chemicals that cigarettes would expose the baby to.

Sources "Smoking during Pregnancy." Home. N.p., Dec. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2016.​ This article talks about how the more you smoke the more effects it has on the body. It list a whole bunch of different things it can do to your body but even more things that smoking can have on the child's body. ​  "Which Quit Smoking Medication Is Right for You?" Smokefree.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. ​​ This website talks about the effects of the medicine you use when you are trying to quit smoking and it says that is nearly doubles your chance to quit. It also says you will also be spending less money to purchase the medications than it would be to continue buying cigarettes.

Sources "Smoking - Effects on Your Body." Betterhealth. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. This website states that women who smoke cigarettes are 2 times as likely to give birth to a low birth weight kid than a normal person. It tells you about all the different effects that smoking can do to the baby and it says it cuts down the oxygen to the kid and exposes the baby to a wide variety of harmful chemicals. "Smoking While Pregnant." About Birth Defects. Chaffin Luhana, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. This website is about telling us statistics about how bad smoking was to the baby.

Sources Goodman, MA Brenda. "Smoking in Pregnancy Raises Birth Defect Risk." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2016. This article was a study of a 50 year period of research that showed the connection of smoking and birth defects. The study was done by Michael Kats a professor and medical doctor at Columbia university.