if the mother smokes fewer than twenty cigarettes a day, the risks to her baby from the nicotine in her milk are small. When a breastfeeding mother smokes more than twenty to thirty cigarettes a day, the risks increase. Heavy smoking can reduce a mother's milk supply and on rare occasions has caused symptoms in the breastfeeding baby such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. (Vorherr 1974). By keeping smoking to a minimum, a mother can decrease the risk. When a mother smokes a cigarette, the nicotine levels in her blood and milk first increase and then decrease over time. The half-life of nicotine (the amount of time it takes for half the nicotine to be eliminated from the body) is ninety-five minutes. For this reason, a mother should avoid smoking just before and certainly during a feeding.