Your baby is now officially an embryo and is about the size of a poppy seed.
Please visit www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/4-weeks-pregnant/ for more information.
Smoking in pregnancy and COVID-19
During the period of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, pregnant women and their partners are still encouraged to give up smoking. We don’t know a lot about COVID-19 yet as it is a new disease, but there is evidence that you are more likely to catch respiratory infections such as flu, if you smoke, and also that your symptoms may be more severe.
Guidance from the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training advises that it is still vitally important that we help you to quit because smoking harms the immune system and smokers are therefore less protected against infections like coronavirus.
Smokers are therefore at greater risk of:
- getting acute respiratory infections
- infections lasting longer
- infections being more serious than they would be for someone who does not smoke.
Your midwife will continue to have conversations with you about your smoking status during your pregnancy.
You can be reassured that specialist help is still there to support you to quit smoking, although you are likely to be accessing it in a different way such as via telephone, Skype or video call rather than face to face. Nicotine replacement therapy products can still also be provided to support you in quitting.
For more information visit Today is the Day.
Advice for parents on smoking and the Coronavirus #QuitForCovid is available here.
