Can You Smoke Hookah While Breastfeeding?

After giving birth, most moms will feel stressed, prompting them to find different ways to relax. Most women are wise enough to know that smoking and drinking alcohol while breastfeeding affects the health and quality of breast milk.

Many people have chosen hookah as an alternative. So the question is: Can you smoke hookah while breastfeeding? The answer is no.

As recommended by medical professionals, you should not smoke hookah while breastfeeding to avoid affecting your and your kid’s health.

While drinking alcohol and cigarette smoking are well-known to be harmful to pregnant and lactating women, smoking hookah is not so critical. This article will analyze in detail the aspects of this topic.

Let’s keep reading to find out!

What Is Hookah?

Hookah, known as shisha (sheesha), hubble-bubble, and narghile, is a water pipe with a smoke bowl, chamber, hose, and pipe.

Hookah Overview

The word “hookah” refers to the pipe itself, not what’s inside it.

The usage of hookah appeared centuries ago in ancient India and Persia. There are electronic forms of hookah that include hookah pens and steam stones.

People will utilize the pipe to smoke tobacco that has been heated on charcoal or coals. The tobacco smoke will pass through the water and is drawn via the rubber hose to the mouthpiece.

You can get a variety of flavors, such as apple, cherry, chocolate, mint, licorice, coconut, watermelon, and more.

Many people still believe that “smoking hookah is not as harmful as cigarette smoking.” It’s not true! The tobacco used in a hookah pipe is not safer than that in a cigarette. Besides, you cannot expect that the water filters the harmful ingredients contained in tobacco smoke in the hookah bowl.

If you smoke hookah, you may inhale more smoke than smoking cigarettes. Smoking a pack of cigarettes is equivalent to smoking a hookah for an hour.

Similar to smoking cigarettes, smoking hookah gives you feelings like:

• Dizzy
• Wobbly
• Relaxed
• Lightheaded
• And more

It can also make you addicted and feel anxious and nauseous without it.

Tobacco contains nicotine which will seep into your bloodstream over time. It will cause many adverse effects on health, such as making your brain disordered, so it’s not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking.

Health Effects

Smoking hookah exposes you to the same health-related risks as smoking cigarettes.

1. Reduced Fertility

Smoking too much shisha can reduce fertility in both men and women.

According to results from one study, sperm motility and sperm morphology were negatively affected for men who regularly smoked shisha.

2. Cancer

If you take shisha regularly, you have an increased risk of many different types of cancer, such as stomach cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, and more.

3. Damage to Women’s Health

A study has shown that women have reduced bone density or early menopause if they abuse shisha.

4. Stroke and Heart Disease

This habit can also cause you to have an increased heart rate and blood pressure, leading to an increased risk of stroke and heart attack. It can also cause heart disease and clogged arteries.

5. Pregnancy Risks

Smoking hookah during pregnancy can expose you to many risks, such as:

• Chromosomal disorders
• Low birth weight
• Ectopic pregnancy
• Intrauterine growth restriction
• Infant disease and mortality

This habit can also increase your baby’s risk of respiratory diseases.

6. Lung Disease

Regular use of sheesha may also lead to a decline in lung function. Over time, it degrades lung function, leading to lung diseases, such as COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).

7. Secondhand Smoke

Using shisha can create secondhand smoke, which is very dangerous for you and your baby. People who are exposed to it, even if they don’t use shisha, can develop the disease, such as:

• Lung cancer
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• And more

8. Spreading Illness

Smoking hubble-bubble is also a cause of disease spread. The shisha lovers are often in the same room while smoking; several people often share the same pipe.

It is the leading cause of spreading Illness, including colds or other infections, such as oral herpes.

Can Breastfeeding Moms Smoke Hookah?

Smoking hookah is no safer than cigarette smoking. Therefore, we recommend breaking this habit while breastfeeding.

According to recommendations from the CDC, the abuse of Hubble bubbles is one of the factors that cause SIDS, and lower respiratory diseases in infants, and many diseases, such as:

• Pneumonia
• Bronchitis
• Lessened lung function
• Ear infections
• And more

It would be best to quit smoking hookah while breastfeeding. However, if this is not feasible for you, it is best to use shisha a few hours before feeding your baby.

You may have to wait about two hours after using shisha to ensure that your body has eliminated about 50% of the nicotine from tobacco.

Even if you can’t get rid of using shisha habit, you should still give your baby breast milk because it has many health benefits for the baby. Whether you smoke or not, breast milk is still the recommended food for your baby.

Is It Possible to Smoke Hookah Around Your Baby?

It is unwise to use hubble-bubble around your baby as it creates secondhand smoke. It is hazardous for the people around you, no matter how old they are.

Hookah smoke may contain various harmful chemicals like traditional cigarette smoke, such as acrolein, acetaldehyde, arsenic, carbon monoxide, and more.

Your baby can inhale all of them into the lungs, leading to health risks. Even if you’re using hookah away from your baby, it’s essential to change your clothes before holding your baby because the harmful chemicals stick to your clothes.

Does Smoking Hubble-Bubble Affect Your Breast Milk?

The answer is yes! This habit harms breast milk. The chemicals in cigarettes, including nicotine, can pass from you to your baby through breast milk.

Overuse of narghile can also decrease your breast milk supply. It may be a consequence of nicotine intake, which can decrease serum prolactin levels.

Your breast milk will be significantly affected by what you take in. As a result, the taste of your breast milk may be negatively altered by nicotine, causing your baby to refuse to breastfeed.

FAQs

1. How Long After Smoking Hookah Can I Breastfeed?

The exact answer is at least four hours. It is necessary to wait at least four hours after using shisha for nursing your baby because the cause is nicotine.

The half-life of this chemical is around two hours. As a result, it will take at least four hours for your body to eliminate nicotine completely.

This chemical can pass from your blood into your breastmilk, and it remains there for a while. It can cause health problems for your infant.

2. Is a Hookah Worse Than Cigarettes?

Generally, hubble-bubble smoking is as harmful as traditional cigarette smoking. That means that it may also contain various harmful chemicals, including acrolein, acetaldehyde, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, cobalt, and more.

The tobacco in a hookah pipe is no less toxic than a cigarette. Moreover, the water in it does not filter all of the toxic ingredients in tobacco smoke.

3. Is It Illegal to Smoke Around a Child?

Nowadays, many states have banned smoking in cars when children are present.

Specifically, adults are not allowed to smoke even if the car is parked with the door open, they smoke out of the window, or the sunroof is open.

However, there is no national legislation to protect children from involuntary exposure to secondhand smoke in public, workplaces, homes, or cars.

4. Is a Shisha Addictive?

Yes, of course. It is addictive.

Shisha typically contains nicotine which is addictive. It is a chemical that allows your brain to produce feelings of pleasure, but the effects do not last very long.

So, people who use shisha regularly may find it more challenging to stop, as they could have a nicotine addiction.

The Bottom Line

It’s bad to smoke hookah when you’re nursing. Smoking hookah can be addictive and has adverse effects on the health of you and your baby. Moreover, it’s no safer than traditional cigarettes.

So, the best thing to protect the health of you and your little angel is to avoid using shisha during this period. Talk to your doctor if you don’t think you can quit on your own.

Thank you for reading! Please share this article with other breastfeeding moms!