Why is it so dangerous to smoke during pregnancy?
How will smoking affect my baby?
What can I do?
Ob-gyn Robert Welch has helped thousands of women with high-risk pregnancies realize their dreams of a healthy baby. But even after all those successes, there's still one situation that truly scares him: a pregnant woman who can't quit smoking.
"Smoking cigarettes is probably the No. 1 cause of adverse outcomes for babies," says Welch, who's the chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Providence Hospital in Southfield, Michigan. He's seen the complications far too many times: babies born prematurely, babies born too small, babies who die before they can be born at all. In his view, pregnancies would be safer and babies would be healthier if pregnant smokers could somehow swap their habit for a serious disease such as diabetes or high blood pressure...
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