Amanda started smoking in fifth grade, by age 13, she smoked every day. While in college, newly engaged—and still smoking a pack a day—Amanda learned she was pregnant. She tried to quit, but juggling work and classes was stressful. She thought cigarettes helped deal with stress. Her baby was born 2 months early. The tiny baby girl spent weeks in a hospital incubator. “I couldn’t hold her much in those first weeks. It’s time I’ll never get back. Smoking took that from me,” (CDC.gov). Amanda’s story is only one of thousands, no matter the drug, using while pregnant is extremely dangerous to the fetus. When the topic of drug use during pregnancy comes up, many people assume the worst drugs are the subject, and don’t consider marijuana or tobacco. With that said, I am going to make apparent the verity of similarities and differences between the two gateway drugs from numerous aspects.
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Some effects are even life threatening. For example, when a pregnant woman inhales a cigarette it lowers oxygen levels to the unborn baby’s brain. It also increases the baby’s heartrate to unhealthy numbers. A regular heartbeat for a fetus is anywhere from 120 to 160 beats per minute, a fetus exposed to tobacco is closer to 180 to 190 beats per minute (essentialbaby.com). Also, it increases the mortality rate before birth by 28%. The chances of having a premature child are astronomically increased, in a “good case” the baby’s weight will be reduced by 170 g (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Although not necessarily life threatening, many birth defects can come out of this exposure. Those birth defects include: Down syndrome, trisomy 18, Tay-Sachs, sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and neural tube defects, including spina bifida
Some effects are even life threatening. For example, when a pregnant woman inhales a cigarette it lowers oxygen levels to the unborn baby’s brain. It also increases the baby’s heartrate to unhealthy numbers. A regular heartbeat for a fetus is anywhere from 120 to 160 beats per minute, a fetus exposed to tobacco is closer to 180 to 190 beats per minute (essentialbaby.com). Also, it increases the mortality rate before birth by 28%. The chances of having a premature child are astronomically increased, in a “good case” the baby’s weight will be reduced by 170 g (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Although not necessarily life threatening, many birth defects can come out of this exposure. Those birth defects include: Down syndrome, trisomy 18, Tay-Sachs, sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis, and neural tube defects, including spina bifida