Smoking during your pregnancy could cause birth defects and a low birth weight in your baby. It may also result in placental abruption or a stillbirth. You might feel hooked on smoking, but the health of your baby could be the perfect incentive you need to finally quit. Unfortunately, smoking cessation aids, like the patch or nicotine gum, aren’t necessarily healthy for your baby, either. Employ other methods and strategies to help you quit.
Step 1
Talk to your doctor. It’s easy to feel ashamed about smoking or how much you smoke, especially when you’re pregnant. Be completely honest with your doctor and tell her that you want to quit. She may determine that some stop-smoking aids are safe for you to use.
Step 2
Make a list of reasons why you want to quit smoking. Your growing baby is the best one, but consider the others, like saving money, smelling better and improving your own health. Refer to this list as you quit smoking.
Step 3
Get the smoke out of your home. If you smoke indoors, things are worse. Not only are you breathing in the smoke as you take a drag, but it’s hanging out in the room long after you put the cigarette out. It’s important that you — and anyone else in the house who smokes — take things outside.
Step 4
Change your smoking patterns. If you’re not ready to quit cold turkey, you can help by breaking some of the emotional attachments with smoking. For example, you may always light up immediately after a meal, when you sit down in the car or at certain times of the day. Stop smoking at these times.
Step 5
Hack your brain. You currently think of yourself as a smoker. You can change this thinking. Throughout the day, call yourself a non-smoker. When you think about cigarettes or see someone else smoking, say to yourself, “That’s disgusting.” Tell yourself that it’s easy to quit smoking and it starts to become easy.
Step 6
Tell yourself you can have a cigarette tomorrow. Rather than focusing on never having a cigarette again, think about just getting through the end of the day. The next day, do the same thing. The “tomorrow” when you can smoke your cigarette will never come. Eventually, you won’t want it anymore.
Step 7
Find the support you need. If you only hang out with smokers, you’re going to want to smoke. Try to hang out with non-smokers as much as you can. You can also connect with others trying to quit or who have successfully quit for support.
