[Smoking and pregnancy]

The medical consultation during pregnancy should include information about smoking and side-stream smoking. More than half of the fetuses are more or less exposed to harmful substances passing the placenta due to smoking of the mother or smoking persons in the direct environment. The danger due to side-stream smoking have to be considered more during the consultation. It is known that toxic substances are concentrated higher in the side-stream smoke than in the main-stream smoke. Due to enzyme induction, smokers can metabolize toxic substances faster than non-smokers or side-stream smokers. Already before a planned pregnancy, it should be pointed out that tobacco smoke contains numerous teratogenic substances which double the risk of fetal malformations. A high consumption of cigarettes induces an increased risk of abortion. An insufficient perfusion of the uterus and the placenta causes an O2-debt with an increased risk for malformations such as schistasis or an increased rate of premature birth. The increased CO content of the maternal blood reduces the O2 transport capacity since CO has an about 200 times greater affinity to hemoglobin than O2. These and other topics of the consultation for pregnant women are important in the interest of the fetus.