When you are pregnant, everything that happens to you also affects your baby. As a pregnant woman, you are connected to your baby physically, and everything that you do to yourself and put into your body affects your baby too. This is most especially true with smoking. But what to do to help stop pregnant women quit smoking?
How Do I Stop?
By now, there have been many articles and warnings about smoking when you are pregnant, or even, being around people who are smoking. Second and even third hand cigarette smoke can affect not only you but your baby and its development. But the question is, now that you are pregnant, you want to stop smoking; but how do you quit smoking?
Majority of those who have quit smoking have said before that it was the hardest thing they have ever had to do, but one of the best things they have ever done for themselves. Most people will say to just go cold turkey. This is when you just quit everything at once. There’s a big success rate for this but it does take serious willpower. Smoking is a habit after all, and it is one that is not easy to break. Do not let this discourage you though!
As a pregnant woman, stopping the ingestion of harmful chemicals is already a plus. Doing exercises and being more mindful about what you eat on top of that is like a cherry on the top! This will not only help you quit but also will help build healthier habits later on.
Cold Turkey vs Gradually Quitting
Most people who quit cold turkey say that they planned it out in advance. They got rid of most anything that would trigger them into smoking. Be it ashtrays lighters even, or anything they would use to smoke, would be disposed of so there would be no temptation to to back Also, another tip that people who quit this way has said that to cushion the loss of the habit of smoking, especially if they realize that their habit was about the oral fixation of it, most people tend to binge on food, and most often, these are to foods that are unhealthy. People who have successfully quit smoking have said that the best way to replace this is to get into a healthier habit, such as snacking on vegetables instead or even exercising when the urge to pick up a cigarette comes. Even with just walking, this would help your health in a big way!
There are some that also say that tapering off smoking and quitting gradually has helped them enormously. They have been able to fully quit by bringing consumption down in stages: an example would be if you are a 10 cigarettes a day kind of smoker, to taper it off, you would try to keep it down to 8 a day for two weeks, then bring that down to 6 cigarettes a week later on and so forth until you are able to quit completely.
Tips and Triggers
One tip that has helped if you decide to quit smoking by yourself is to recognize that this is a habit and one that is triggered by certain situations you find yourself in. You will need figure out what your triggers are to smoking (for example, drinking coffee, or even the smell of coffee), and replacing this trigger by reacting to it in another way (taking coffee as an example, then pair it up with doing something like eat fruit instead of reaching for a stick of a cigarette).
These are usually the two most common ways to quit smoking, but though it works for a lot of people, it may not work for all. Perhaps there are psychological reasons why you smoke, and how it has become a crutch for you to deal with certain triggers in your life. You must try to figure out what these triggers are and find ways of dealing with them that can replace smoking or better yet, so you can manage them better.
There are some that still need professional help when it comes to quitting smoking. There should be no shame in asking for help in quitting because ultimately, quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for yourself as well as for your family.
Do not feel daunted by this! It may be a hard habit to break but it is not impossible, and just think about how this will help not only yourself but your baby be healthier in the long run. We wish you good luck and know you can do it!
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