Abhishek Agarwal asked:


If you are breastfeeding then you should avoid smoking as it causes health problems both for the baby and mother. All the poisons and toxins contained in cigarettes also goes to the baby. It has been seen that many women smoke even after they know its ill effects during pregnancy or if they are breastfeeding.

There are women who continue to smoke even during breastfeeding. Smoking and breastfeeding at the same time is very dangerous and must be avoided by the nursing mothers. Baby gets all the ill effects of smoking if 20 cigarettes or more than that are consumed by the mother daily. More the cigarettes, more the baby would be effected.

Heavy smoking also results in reduced milk supply in mothers. It also causes symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, nausea etc. on rare occasions in nursing mothers who smoke heavily.

The risk is even more high if women smokes cigarette during or just before feeding. This is due to the fact that the level of nicotine in her milk and blood increases rapidly. Although it decreases over the time but is still harmful for the baby.

It takes around ninety-five minutes for the body to eliminate half of the nicotene from the body. This is also known as half-life of nicotine. Even if a mother smokes cigarette then she should feed the baby only after one and a half hour.

If we talk of smoking and breastfeeding then maternal smoking might result in let down reflex, inhibition of the milk ejection, lowered milk production and early weaning. Not only this, it also lowers the level of prolactin in the blood. Heavy smoking mothers are sometimes leaner and have higher metabolic rates than the non-smoking mothers.

Babies of smoking mothers who enjoy smoking during or before breastfeeding are fussier and colicky than those babies whose mothers are non smokers.

The baby should not even be exposed to any second hand smoke from the people who are smoking cigarettes. Many diseases such as SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), stunted development, respiratory illness and many other health hazards may occur due to second hand smoke.

Many people smoke and let others smoke around them even after knowing all these facts. They are very well aware of the types of tongue, mouth, lip, lung cancer etc. that are consequences of smoking. Even after so much knowledge these people are not willing to quit smoking.

Although a smoking mother is always advised to quit smoking but many experts agree that benefits of breastfeeding overcomes the results of smoking. So, even if a mother smokes, she can give breastfeeding. It would be better if she follows some time gap between her smoking and breastfeeding.