Smoking while pregnant: how bad is it?
This was a hard one because it's widely considered a really bad thing to smoke while pregnant.
All I could gather (after sifting through the outrage) was if you smoke and you quit cold turkey the withdrawal you'll go through doesn't hurt you or your baby and if you gradually quit before you hit 14 weeks your baby should be okay.
It is thought that smoking during pregnancy reduces the amount of oxygen getting to your baby and therefore can increase the chance of low birth weight, poor mental development, sudden infant death syndrome just to name a few gems.
Frankly, from the rabid comments people left on all these websites, I can't imagine anyone brave (or crazy) enough to smoke while pregnant anyway. Not unlike other vices, smoking seems to be considered a habit you choose to partake in and is therefore viewed as you taking your baby for a walk by kicking it down the street. The masses have spoken I suppose.
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29 Comments
Reader Comments (29)
It was interesting to me just how taboo smoking whilst pregnant had become when I was watching last season's Mad Men. (It takes place in the early sixties, if you don't own a television set or live in the ground like a gnome and can't get the rabbit ears to work.) In any case, it was the strangest thing to see Betty Draper, the main character's wife, heavily pregnant and sucking down those Chesterfields and getting her drink on. It was so bizarre to behold that our mothers/grandmothers smoked like chimneys--but hey, we all turned out fine, didn't we?
Didn't we?
An issue I have is second hand smoke. I'm 13 weeks pregnant, I don't and never have smoked, and I don't live in a house where people smoke. However people seem to have the idea if that you smell cigarette smoke even once walking out of a building, your pregnant is doomed. And that's just nuts!
I'm amazed at what people think is detrimental to a pregnancy and even more amazed that they'll tell a complete stranger what they should and shouldn't be doing.
And Mindy, I totally know what you mean about Betty Draper. It hard to concentrate on the dialogue when I'm waiting for Children's Aid to kick in the door. And to think that just a generation ago something that is such a no-no now was so common place.
I read an article on this very subject just this morning regarding smoking in the car whilst the child is present--and that it ought to be considered child abuse. If you don't mind, here is the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-10896335
Speaking of smoking while pregnant...did any of you see Revolutionary Road? Talk about smoking and drinking while pregnant! and I believe this was set in the 40's. it is so weird how socially acceptable it was!
It is very taboo. I'm as liberal and open-minded as they come and it bothered me when I was pregnant to be around someone who smoked or was smoking. But not as much as the people who would notice I was pregnant and start smoking right around me without trying to wave the smoke or anything. I always thought that was so rude.
I know what you mean about Mad Men! I'm constantly with my jaw on the floor at the things they did back then, as in during MY mother's time! Not great-great-grandmother, my own mom! Thankfully, she didn't smoke or drink while pregnant with me (so she says) but it's so surprising to see.
I'm not sure I agree with "smoking seems to be considered a habit you choose to partake in". Smoking is harder to quit then heroin and therefore is not really a habit you "choose to partake in". I'm not saying smoking while pregnant is the better option but quitting gradually is much better than going cold turkey - It is very stressful to quit which is not good for you or baby. My doc always said keep it under 5 a day until you can quit.
As a former smoker, I completely agree that smoking is a really hard habit to kick. The point I was making is that our society wrongly deems it as something you can just easily give up if you needed to hence all the judgment I had to wade through to actually find out what kind of harm smoking does, if any. There were some sites that didn't even give any information, just that smoking is bad which, in my mind wasn't very constructive if you were trying to figure out how to quit.
All that aside, whether you cut down or quit, good luck with it. I know it's a hard road.
I smoked during my 1st pregnancy. My husband was incredibly verbally abusive and the constant badgering and harsh-tempered attitude towards me had my blood pressure through the roof when it normally was on the low end of the normal spectrum. Needless to say, my doc advised that if I could keep my cigarettes to none or at least under 1-2 a day, THAT would be safer than not having a stress reliever to deal with my Husband's crap. I lived off the dollar menu (gained 55 lbs), never exercised and smoked 1-2 cigs a day and my daughter is perfectly healthy, tall for her age, and gifted. Looking back, I realize that I lucked out. Now that I'm on pregnancy #2, I'm doing everything "right" and by the book. I got in incredible shape for this pregnancy, work out 2 hours a day 5 days a week, and I quit smoking the 2nd I found out I was pregnant, but for those first 2 months I wasn't smoking some days, and under 2 a day the days I did smoke. I eat a super healthy balanced diet and of course I don't drink or do drugs. My husband isn't the same man he was back then and thusly with him there's no stress. I don't know about what's right and wrong. Some things seem common sense, like not smoking and drinking, but I broke 1 of those rules the 1st time around and everything went fine. I'm hoping my next baby ends up as healthy, strong and smart as my 1st!!!
This is a such a touchy subject in my family. My sister has 6 kids and smoked like a chimney with ALL of them. They were all HUGE babies and now in school they're freaking little genius's. Its still super hard to watch. I can't even fathom that.
On a lighter note my grandma was smoking and drinking and taking her birth control for the first 5 months she was pregnant with my mother. I'm not surprised my mommy is crazy. :)
As a ex-smoker I have to say that it is very difficult to quit smoking, but I had always said that the day I found I was pregnant was the day I quit and it seems to have worked as I am nearly 5 months pregnant and havent smoked once since I got the positive results back. It is all down to will power.
Ok, I get it, smoking during pregnancy isn't the best idea ever.........BUT just so we are all aware, car exhaust is RIDICULOUSLY more carsonagenic than second hand smoke, so my fellow pregger pinkies, before we give the death dagger stares to the smokers as we waddle down the street, those thousands of cars passing by are doing us far more harm then they are, and besides, they are spending $11-$14 a pack and standing outside when all the funs on the inside--pretty sure they know how they look..
Here's to a relaxed, fantastic pregnancy!!
My husband's mother smoked while she was pregnant with him, and she told me her doctor just told her it just meant she'd have a smaller baby. And this was in the 80's. With that kind of result, you'd think doctors would RECOMMEND you smoke while pregnant. Seems like it would make labour a little easier...(says the non-pregnant childless lady. :D)
It's funny, people bring up the fact that in the 20's, 30's, 40's 50's and even 60's people smoked during pregnancies (hell even in the 70's and 80's and 90's) and everyone was just fine, but I've always been of the mind that cigarettes were VERY different then than they are now. Less filler and crap added to the tobacco.
I was a smoker and have quit (almost two months!) and am TTCing. I'd been told by my mum (who smoked her entire pregnancy with myself and my sister) that I needed to quit and if I didn't this or this or this would happen. The reason I quit? Allergies.
I quit smoking the moment i found out i was pregnant with number 1.
I smokedthroughout my entire 2nd pregnancy.. My son has suffered in the form of allergies and eczema... although, both run in the family so maybe it was destined to happen? I'll never know because I did make the mistake of continuing to smoke.
I am now pregnant for the third time, and before we even started TTC I was determined to quit smoking and did.. March will be both 1 year of no smoking, and when my daughter is due to be born.
Thinking back on the 2nd hand smoke my kid were exposed to sickens me and my husband and i vowed to never pick up a cigerette again.
I have a relative that smoked throughout her entire pregnancy. When she had her baby he was 4 pounds and was having trouble breathing. He had to have a feeding tube and was on oxygen for the first two weeks of his life. This same woman had lost another child at 5 months that was a stillborn. But did she be more careful no. Her son is doing better now but who knows what health problems he will have in the future. Myself as a former smoker and heroin addict I feel that heroin is much much more addictive. Im not attacking anyone but I do think that people who say quitting smoking is harder then quitting heroin haven't ever done heroin.
its so difficult to quit smoking....if you've never smoked you can't know, theres nothing really comparable. I am 12 weeks and really struggling to stop. i thought when i had my 1st scan that would help, but still really want to smoke. I'm kind of glad to read that not everyone is a smoking facist, but I am so fed up with the evil midwife stares and the referral she made (without my permission) to a stop smoking clinic. I am determined to stop, but when I do I get amazingly stressed (constant crying etc). I'm down to 2-3 mild cigs a day, when I was on 20 strong a day 12 wekks ago, so I think I'm not too dreadful. please dont judge ladies who are trying xx
smoking is universally accepted to be toxic to your body, in any amount. it just isn't fair to force your children to consume those poisons during and after pregnancy. i realize it's addictive, but it's not impossible to quit. and ultimatley it's a choice. remember that before justifying why and how many you think are ok to have.
basically there's a 50/50 chance that your baby will be healthy or born with problems whether you smoke or not but ask yourself before you do smoke while pregnant...do you want to take that chance...i didn't i quit smoking with both my pregnancies and no it was not easy....will power is the key really
I had a friend get so mad, when I wouldn't let her smoke in the car with me. I don't care if she smokes but all I asked is would she not smoke around me while pregnant and in front of my kids. I don't see her often, and since the last incident she won't even talk to me.
I had one final cigarette after finding out that I was pregnant, and to be honest, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to quit. For a week or two it was difficult to drive and not smoke, as smoking is most definitely a habitual addiction. I still have the occasional dream that I'm having a cigarette, but I don't wake up with a craving.
I have seen, firsthand, the effects that smoking can have on a baby (not mine - a friend's). That baby came out looking like Benjamin Button - an old, wrinkly man-baby. He's five now, and suffers from asthma and has an unusually "airy" voice. She could care less; I couldn't imagine doing that to my baby.
Coincidentally, that friend and I are pregnant together right now - she's just one day ahead of me. She's still smoking.
Where all you people who have seen kids messed up from smoking? My dads side of the family they all smoke and drink, and continue to do so while pregnant, tho they do cut drinking down to an occasional glass...none of my cousins or relatives on that side have had any breathing problems, height or weight abnormalities, or other health defects...I however had never touched a ciggarette in my life, yet my son not only has asthma but has since birth has come down with things like croup and catches any type of lung or breathing illness thats going around at the time easily...and he isnt around people who smoke either, and neither was I while pregnant, since I didnt spend much time with my dads family while I was pregnant. I also know someone I went to highschool with, who actually doubled her smokes a day while pregnant due to stress of being preggo, having an abusive "babydaddy" and then going through a breakup with her childs father during the pregnancy,...her little girl is an adorable smart healthy perfectly developed 2 year old...just saying, most people I know, (babies, children or adults) who seem to have issues associated with smoking, have those things run in their family anyways so it seems a terrible indicator or whether it was the smoke or not, since so many are born perfectly healthy. I think smoking stats in general need to be of people whose family doesnt already have a history of genetic difficulties that are also associated with smoking...never met a smoker with lung cancer either...And like I said, my dads ENTIRE family smokes like a carton a week each
In response to the argument that smoking is a choice and that quitting is a simple little matter of something called willpower... if only it were that simple. Yes smoking is bad for mother and baby and ideally we all plan and prepare for our pregnancies and by becoming perfect models of healthy incubation. However nicotine addiction is a powerful and complex physiological process that is not without real consequences. Women with preexisting anxiety or depression risk their mental health when quitting cold turkey, the results of which may be worse than a few cigarettes a day. But hey, I suppose such preexisting imperfections mean we should not be incubating anyway.
I have to say that I did smoke during my first pregnancy. I tried to quit but it didn't work as my husband didn't quit and I was surrounded by cigarette smoke constantly.
My doctor advised me that since I was a heavy drinker and drug user that suffered from anxiety and depression, it would be too stressful to quit everything at once, so I quit drinking and drugs, and cut down to a few mild cigarettes a day. My daughter is beautiful, smart and healthy. My mother smoked constantly with my brothers and I both while pregnant and when we were young, and we all turned out fine as well. I don't support smoking cigarettes while pregnant, but it is very very hard to quit. In my opinion, harder to quit than cocaine and heroin for sure.
I am curious what opinions you ladies have on aids to quitting smoking. I did go to speak with a pharmacist during my first pregnancy asking about nicorette and other aids to quitting smoking. I was told that they are not good for my pregnancy and I had to quit cold turkey. Well, that didn't work. Later on after my babygirl was born, I found out that yes they are bad for your pregnancy, but if it comes down to nicorette vs. real cigarettes, the nicorette is better.