Smoking during pregnancy and how to quit

health pregnancy

Why do people smoke?

Cigarette is associated with adulthood, it’s true. You will not see child smokers as often as adult smokers. At school, I liked to prove something to someone, and somehow (classes in the third) I was taken aback – to smoke a cigarette. Well, I say – get it for me, I’ll smoke, ask! Got it. I hid it in my pocket and said that I would bring everything to everyone tomorrow.

On the morning of the great event, the whole family was waiting for me in the kitchen with questioning looks: a cigarette was found in the pocket of my jacket. The family demanded an explanation and shared it with deep condemnation and misunderstanding. Therefore, the family did not receive an explanation, but rather instilled in me some subconscious anger: children should not be treated as criminals. Build true trust, and they will come to you to tell you that they plan to prove to everyone that they can smoke as adults. And then you have a much better chance to help them. Well, I didn’t prove anything to anyone then, because my cigarette was eliminated, I don’t even remember how I smeared myself in front of my classmates then.

How I started smoking

Since childhood, I did not like smokers, especially girls who smoked. What about hopeful smokers, you want to tie a pregnant chicken to an oak tree and peel it, and then feed it to the dogs. I decided to try what they found in it. I borrowed a cigarette from my dad (I was somewhere in the seventh grade then) and tried to smoke. To put it mildly, I didn’t like it, and so I established myself in my dislike of smokers.

However, in the tenth grade I was allowed to taste a delicious cherry-flavored cigarette, and somehow unnoticed I started smoking them from time to time, “not in a puff.” Then it turned out that there are still vanilla and chocolate cigarettes – mmmm. And then I met a boy who explained that I smoked “wrong” and taught me to smoke, lingering. Thank you, “friend”!

Eventually I got tired of chocolate and vanilla cigarettes, and I decided it was enough to smoke. It turned out that there are menthol cigarettes. I’ll try. Well, like nothing.

Meanwhile, smoking has become something of a tradition or a special occasion. It was supposed to be a planned action, because a fifteen-year-old girl-smoker attracts a lot of reprehensible looks, and it’s very unpleasant.

And so, menthol cigarettes began to get bored as well. And maybe I stopped smoking back then, but here I was given a pack of Kemel. I still remember who. It was a girl, and she gave me a pack of words that quit smoking. In short, she passed the baton. Because suddenly it turned out that ordinary tasteless cigarettes also bring pleasure.

I have been smoking for over 12 years since then. People stopped on the street to explain to me that it was harmful (especially old grandparents: “so beautiful, and chicken, ayayay”), awakening in me a teenage protest and asserting the desire to smoke “for evil.” To the evil of the conductor, however. Well, it’s none of your business, I myself recently condemned smoking girls here, but at least kept quiet so as not to interfere in their psychological processes. People said something about addiction, then I stopped sometimes to prove to myself that I was not addicted.

Is it easy to quit smoking?

One day it became difficult to stop.
When you smoke for more than 10 years, more than 10 cigarettes a day, the body’s reaction is unpredictable, because the body gets used to the changes and rebuilds in a new way, and statistics say that such women very rarely quit smoking during pregnancy.

I tried to quit smoking many times, even before pregnancy, but the main reason to return was unpleasant reactions: gums were covered with painful ulcers, insomnia, shortness of breath (which is very difficult to cope with, especially if you work with people, such attacks, of course, very scary), shortness of breath and, of course, a terrible cough. And you should smoke a cigarette, and everything stops, oh panacea!

Yes, you have to pay for everything, and the body needs time to rebuild, start producing nicotine on its own, to revive the natural microflora killed by smoke. But to the smoker, the world seems very unfair to those who quit, because you can smoke and get regular pleasure, instead of suffering, suffocating.

Yes, every smoker dreams of quitting because he feels general fatigue and nervous about the fact of his addiction, panic attacks when cigarettes run out and there is no store nearby, etc., but a cigarette seems like a little friend that brings a little happiness in the most difficult life situation. And to explain this to a person who has never been “involved” is almost impossible. It is much easier for that person to wrinkle his nose and look at the poor victim of his own stupidity.

How to quit smoking during pregnancy?

Every smoker suffers psychologically because of his weakness, dependence, damage to himself and others. Smokers know that smoking is better, better than you, they do not need to be reminded. And what to say about a pregnant smoker, she suffers twice, because she is worried about the well-being of the baby, and she is not worthy to quit smoking. And you read those articles on the Internet, and you come to the stupid conclusion that if you do not quit as soon as you get pregnant, then it makes no sense, because the body still does not have time to rebuild, but instead you put yourself and your child much more stress “throwing”, physically and psychologically.

Coincidentally, I set a goal to finally get rid of those cigarettes a few months before I got pregnant unplanned. An e-cigarette helped a lot. I decided that I would smoke cigarettes only when it was very hot. But the pregnancy protested against the e-cigarette, I couldn’t stand the sweet smell and taste anymore, and went back to the cigarettes. I tried to reduce their number, but in my case it does not work: a little stress, and I can skin 5 at once.

So I just told myself I didn’t want to smoke anymore. Every time a cigarette tells me “smoke me, and you’ll be happy,” and I imagine how wonderful it is to inhale the smoke and exhale it in a beautiful stream, I will change the slide with a cigarette in my head to a slide with my son in my stomach, and drink a glass of water in return.

My husband doesn’t smoke, but he never pressured me with that smoking, never asked me to quit, even when I got pregnant, because I told him how it was and how I felt. And I am extremely grateful to him for that. Understanding and support are far more effective than condemnation. One day I told him, “I don’t want to smoke anymore, please help me.” I always jokingly ask him “can I smoke”, he says “no” when cigarettes are somewhere nearby, or “yes” when they are impossible to get, and we giggle a little. Laughter cures many troubles.

Side effects of quitting smoking

Today is only the 11th day of my non-smoking. This is not easy, especially because of stupid painful sores in the mouth. I don’t sleep well, and I know from previous experience that I will soon start coughing and choking terribly (usually it starts somewhere in 2 weeks after “throwing”). I went to the doctor and received advice on rinsing my mouth to heal the ulcers. The doctor, of course, did not forget to look at me with condemnation and misunderstanding (oh heavens, what they are stupid!). But hell with him, the main thing is that the ulcers will heal.

Folk methods also recommend rinsing with a decoction of oak bark, sage and chamomile, I now simply do not have access to them, but buy at the first opportunity, I always prefer natural treatments. If you have acne, which is also very likely, I advise you to use jojoba oil, it even treats eczema, and it has repeatedly saved my skin from “emergencies”. This oil is not interesting for your oily or dry skin, with pimples or rashes, it cures literally any skin disease.

Coughing with the belly is very undesirable and quite painful, so if it is very bad, I will go to the doctor again. Meanwhile, all those who find themselves in a similar situation, and do not know how to quit smoking during pregnancy, I advise you to drink a lot: water, milk and orange juice, eat fruit: much tastier than cigarettes, and positively affects the figure, breathe a lot: slowly and deep (it helps to expand your wrinkled lungs from smoking), do sports: in the case of pregnant women, the best options are yoga and swimming, ask your husband (relative or friend) to massage the chest on both sides: it brings relief. And imagine a little miracle in your tummy, with all its little handles and toothless mouth: it helps the most 🙂

And the question of whether it is possible to quit smoking abruptly, what harm smoking brings to a child, etc. – forget it. How many people – so many stories, we are all different, listen to yourself. The baby will be normal, think positively, simply because there is no point in thinking otherwise.

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