Introduction: Based on the data gathered by World Health Organization, there are more than a billion smokers in the world. Every tenth pregnant woman is a smoker. Maternal smoking has been confirmed as a factor for increased risk for fetus.More than 7000 chemicals in cigarettes that freely pass this barrier and therefore harm the fetus. Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to introduce the negative effects of active smoking during pregnancy. In the thesis the effects of active smoking on the fetus, it's development, the birth weight and chance of survival are presented. Methods: A descriptive method of work with systematic review, assessment and analysis of national and international scientific and professional literature was used. The literature was searched through the scientific databases Cobiss, PubMed, Medline, Cochrane Library. The used literature was no older than 10 years. Results: The results included in thesis have shown that smoking affects birth weight, size of the fetal head, size of the fetus abdomen, lenght of the fetus femur, premature birth. The premature newborns of active smokers had statistically better chances of survival than those of non-smokers. The premature newborns of mothers that were subjected to second hand smoking had statistically the highest mortality. Discussion and conclusion: Even though the effect of maternal smoking is fairly well known, a lot of women still do not decide to stop smoking for the length of their pregnancy. Seeing as the results of the studies show that most active smokers that are pregnant are in the ages up to 20 years, it would be crucial to make young women aware of these effects and offer them help in quitting smoking.
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