to think that recent research linking smoking in pregnancy to behaviour problems in children....

[GenerationGap]

has more to do with the fact that inadequate,ineffectual and uneducated parents are more likely to be smokers, than the actual smoking itself and their offspring reflect this?

[Iklboo]

My mum smoked when she was pregnant with me 40 years ago - she also had a Mackenson Stout every night.
I have never smoked
I do drink at weekends but not to excess
I have never been in trouble with police etc
I was 36 when I got pregnant with DS (and I was actually married )

Most of my peers were the same

So it does have a ring of 'shift the blame/cause' a wee bit

[MrsVik]

YABU, firstly to assume that a smoker is an inadequate, ineffectual and uneducated parent, and secondly to believe that allowing poison to enter your lungs or any other part of your body will not harm a growing baby in one or more ways.

[sabire]

Do you have a link to the research?

You would have hoped the study would have controlled for parental background. To me it doesn't seem beyond the bounds of possibility that exposing your baby to a regular dose of highly toxic chemicals in the womb might have some sort of consequences as far as its neurological development is concerned.....

One in five women smoke all through pregnancy apparently. Have to say, I only know a few people who haven't given up. My SIL smoked through one of her pregnancies. She's university educated, in her 30's and a very, very good parent in every other way.

[sabire]

Sorry - want to add that only one of her four children was exposed to tobacco prenatally. He's a fantastic boy and very smart, but has a lot of respitory problems and has done since birth. Don't know whether this is related in any way to the smoking.

[Iklboo]

IIRC the researcher did say something along the lines of 'to be fair, we had similar results with women who didn't smoke' or summat

[doggiesayswoof]

Link to research please OP?

[DaisymooSteiner]

Funnily enough the researchers considered that possibility too, which is why they took into account confounders such as inadequate parenting.