Hookah while breastfeeding, can nursing mothers smoke during breastfeeding?

The media and print publications loudly talk about the harm bad habits cause to the body of a pregnant and nursing mother, with special attention focusing on smoking. However, many people forget that there is also hookah smoking, due to certain factors, it is positioned as a harmless and safe form. There is an opinion that a water filter prevents the penetration of toxic microelements into the lungs. And to improve the taste sensation, special flavoring substances are added to tobacco. Is it possible to smoke hookah while breastfeeding? How does it affect the body of mother and baby?

Components included in the smoking mixture

To answer the question whether it is possible to smoke a hookah while breastfeeding, you should familiarize yourself with the components of the smoking mixture:

Hookah is smoked using special tobacco, which differs from cigarette tobacco in that it is moist, has a sticky texture and a characteristic sweet smell.
The main component of the substance is the marinade - molasses, honey or sugar syrup. Thanks to this component, tobacco gains properties such as stickiness and sweetness.
Flavorings give tobacco a pronounced smell of fruits and other flavor lines.
Natural flavors are extremely rare; manufacturers mainly use synthetic analogues.
Glycerin is used to increase smoke when smoking.
Preservatives are added to tobacco in order to increase the shelf life several times.

In addition to additional components, tobacco also contains undesirable harmful substances in its composition:

resins;
nicotine;
carbohydrate oxide.

The smoke that enters the human body during hookah smoking contains all the same components as those found in cigarette smoke.

Is it possible to smoke hookah while breastfeeding?

In order to answer such a pressing question, it is necessary to understand what mark smoking narghile leaves during breastfeeding on the body of the nursing mother and her baby.

Impact on mom

The elements that make up hookah tobacco provoke the following reactions in the mother’s body:

the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract is disrupted;
the woman’s respiratory system is under stress;
the load on the cardiovascular system increases, as a result, blood pressure increases, and the heart rate per minute increases;
the woman's nervous system also suffers.

If a nursing woman adds drinking alcohol to the process of smoking shisha, then this can result in more severe consequences - severe intoxication.

Impact on the child

Mother's milk is a conductor not only of nutrients into the baby's body, but also of harmful components. And only a woman can avoid intoxication of the baby.

All the consequences that can befall a child after a nursing mother smokes a hookah have been described above. However, the consequences are also long-term.

Science has proven that at school age, children of smoking mothers begin to lag significantly behind their peers. In some cases, children develop diseases - oligophrenia.

Of course, such consequences occur only in cases of regular hookah smoking. Based on the above information, it is worth drawing a conclusion that smoking narghile while breastfeeding causes significant harm to the baby’s health.

Harm from smoking hookah

This contributes to the emergence of negative consequences:

Along with smoke, carbon monoxide enters the body, causing oxygen starvation, thereby causing poisoning of the body, expressed in headaches and poor concentration.
The smoke that a person inhales when smoking a hookah is filtered, but it is estimated that enjoying the hookah lasts for 45 minutes. brings into the body the amount of carbon monoxide produced by smoking one pack of cigarettes.
Many hookah lovers claim that smoking is not addictive, but this opinion is erroneous: hookah tobacco is exactly as addictive as smoking cigarettes.

Features of using a hookah

Hookah, like steam cocktails and electronic cigarettes, has become increasingly widespread in recent years. This is a whole exotic ceremony with a calming atmosphere.

The design of the hookah consists of a glass vessel with a tapering long neck (shaft), on top of which a saucer with cups is placed. At the bottom there are hoses with smoking pipes at the end - mouthpieces, with the help of which tobacco is inhaled. Thanks to this design, the smoke travels a long way before it enters human organs, and harmful substances remain on the walls of the flask.

You can pour water, juice, milk, tea, coffee or alcohol inside the glass vessel.

Passing through the drink, the smoke is purified and cooled, becomes soft and does not burn the walls of the throat and vocal cords. With the help of such cleaning, as well as a long journey to the respiratory organs, hookah smoke becomes slightly less harmful.

Why is hookah dangerous for babies?

Mother’s milk is not only food for a newborn: with its help, the baby’s immune system is established; when feeding, the baby’s body receives bacteria to colonize the intestines, which promotes normal digestion of food.

Is it okay to drink alcohol while breastfeeding?

When smoking, toxins that enter the bloodstream destroy the microflora of the respiratory system and have a detrimental effect on mother's milk, poisoning the baby. Hookah smoking in the presence of a baby is especially dangerous.

If a nursing mother smokes a hookah, her baby can expect the most unpleasant consequences: excessive excitability, poor sleep, increased risk of allergic reactions, significant weakening of the immune system, and the risk of developing nicotine addiction in the future.

Breastfeeding mothers may face another danger - stopping the production of breast milk. The listed risks provide a complete answer to the question of whether nursing mothers can smoke hookah.

Hookah and its effects on the body

To begin with, to figure out whether smoking hookah is harmful for nursing mothers, you need to understand what it even is? This device consists of several parts: a flask, a shaft, a hose with a mouthpiece and a bowl into which tobacco is poured.

Those who claim that hookah smoking is harmless refer to the filter liquid that is in the flask, but based on the findings of scientists, it has become clear that in fact, the liquid in the flask practically does not perform a filtering function.

Benzopyrene, another of the products released when smoking a hookah. It is considered one of the most harmful and toxic substances, which in itself does not bring health to a person, not to mention the body weakened after childbirth, and much more importantly, about the child.

If we compare hookah with regular cigarettes, the smoking of which is abused by a significant part of the population, 1 session of hookah smoking can be equated to 100-200 cigarettes. This result is based on the smoking time; if with cigarettes this process does not take more than 5 minutes, then with a hookah it can take several hours.

What is more harmful for a baby: cigarettes or hookah?

Often mothers who are addicted to hookah argue for the advantages of hookah smoking over cigarettes:

When smoking a hookah, the smoke passes through the liquid, being purified, and a long tube fills the lungs with it.
Many smoking blends do not contain tobacco.
Hookah during breastfeeding, unlike cigarettes, is smoked with a long time interval, which allows mother’s milk to be cleansed of harmful impurities that can enter the baby’s body.

What is overlooked is that nicotine is dangerous even in the smallest doses. To clarify the situation, it is useful to provide comparative facts:

It takes an average of 4 minutes to smoke 1 cigarette; a hookah smoking session lasts more than an hour.
One cigarette contains 2 g of tobacco, hookah mixture – up to 15 g.
Within a quarter of an hour, the filtration liquid, heating up, accumulates toxins, and the quality of purification deteriorates.
Hookah smoke fills the room, additionally poisoning those present with passive smoking.
Each tobacco mixture, including nicotine-free mixtures, includes components that, when burned, release hazardous substances.

The above facts indicate that there can be no talk about the harmlessness or minimal danger of hookah smoking for a baby.

In the case when a nursing mother does not have the willpower to give up a destructive habit, it is necessary to at least ease the blow to the health of the baby

Can a nursing mother have a hookah?

If you still decide to smoke a hookah, you can do this no earlier than three months after the birth of the baby. It’s better to postpone this relaxing procedure until 6-10 months or until the end of lactation. To reduce harm, use only high-quality tobacco mixture of maximum purity with the appropriate certificate and charcoal in small pieces for your hookah.

Smoke a hookah only with plain water for no more than 30 minutes! Before the procedure, thoroughly rinse each element of the device. Breastfeeding after the procedure is not recommended earlier than two hours later. The main harmful substances of smoke are removed from the body after 15-20 hours, the body is completely cleansed only after three days!

Don't get carried away and smoke extremely rarely. Remember that high-quality and healthy breast milk and safe breastfeeding are the key to health, proper development and growth of the baby. And a nursing mother can relieve stress and fatigue in other ways.

Walking in the fresh air, going to the spa and light massages, relaxing baths, herbal teas are what a nursing mother can use. For more information on how and what methods can be used to relax and relieve fatigue during breastfeeding, read the link https://vskormi.ru/mama/poslerodovoya-depressiya-priznaki-i-lechenie/.

How to reduce harm to the baby

The first thing a nursing hookah lover should remember is to avoid smoking from 9 p.m. to 9 a.m. At this time, the lactation process occurs especially intensively. To minimize the harm from breast milk of a smoking mother, it is necessary to exclude hookah smoking 2 hours before the baby takes milk, in which some of the harmful substances are neutralized. It follows from this that it is better to smoke hookah immediately after feeding.

It is necessary to reduce the number of hookah sessions to a minimum: once a week. After smoking, you need to drink a large amount of liquid, which helps remove toxic substances from the milk. The smoking session should be as short as possible. So, 30 minutes is enough to get pleasure at the expense of the baby’s health.

It is better to smoke when the coals are new and lightly lit. It is advisable to take coal in small pieces, changing them more often during smoking. The question of whether a nursing mother can smoke sounds blasphemous: in order for the baby to grow without getting sick, you need to categorically give up bad habits and desires. In this case, the reward for the mother will be a strong, healthy child.

What to do if you don’t have the strength to give up a bad habit?

Hookah, like cigarettes, can cause severe addiction, which is quite difficult to get rid of quickly. There are several additional recommendations that will minimize its negative effects during breastfeeding.

Between 21:00 and 9:00 a.m. there is a taboo on using a hookah. This time is accompanied by increased milk production, so you should not deprive your baby of healthy food.
It is important to refrain from feeding the baby for 2 - 3 hours, and it is better to express milk after this time and not use it at all. The bulk of harmful substances are removed from the body after 15-20 hours, and complete cleansing is possible only after three days.
One relaxing session per week is allowed, lasting no more than half an hour and preferably immediately after smoking a hookah.
Drinking plenty of fluids (2-2.5 liters of fluid per day) will help a nursing mother remove the resulting toxic substances from the body more quickly.
Do not arrange hookah gatherings in the same room with children, this will protect them from passive smoking.

To protect yourself from possible infection, it is better to buy a device for home use. In this case, you will be 100% confident in the cleanliness of the flask and hoses.

When wondering whether a nursing mother can use a hookah, listen to the recommendations and refrain from this method of relaxation until 6-10 months, or better yet, wait until the end of lactation.

Caring for the child’s health means paying increased attention to the mother’s condition. Therefore, it is so important to get rid of stress in time and relieve accumulated fatigue. Look for other ways for these purposes. For example:

a leisurely walk in the fresh air;
spa - treatments in the salon;
relaxing massage;
warm bath with aromatic additives;
herbal tea.

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