if you think its ok to have a glass of wine a week in pregnancy is it ok to have a cigarette a week?

[Beatrixemerald]

Just asking opinions, not sure what mine is really as was teetotal for years pre pregnancy so didn't need to think about it, but I was a smoker until I found out I was pregnant.
I just wonder if we are as a society far more tolerant of drinking vs smoking and this translates through to pregnancy as nhs advice seems to be to avoid both.

The placentas (?pl) of women who smoke actually stink of smoke. Proper mingin'

Slightly off topic but I lived briefly in the deep south US. My local chemists sold cigarettes and told me that cigarettes weren't actually bad for you at all, it was all a conspiracy against the Southern tobacco producing states by the North.
I was just happy I could buy single fags there when I was skint.

And MissDuke? Are UK babies noticeably less healthy than US babies. The programme is about an alcoholic mother who drank pints and brandy regularly, rather different than a glass a week

Does anyone sensible ever believe evidence from the us?

It's funded by private health care schemes and/or the far right.

Pregnant women should be made to register and provide proof of not drinking/smoking/eating unwashed salad/veal/hot baths/soft cheese/pate etc etc.

Excuse my boredom of the bullying and worrying of pregnant women but have been preggers in 1989/91/1999/2001 and all the above advice was trotted out as nauseum.

Don't even fucking start on feeding weaning and sleeping babies.

Blah blah blah.

It did the job though Sand. Not like I wanted to eat it or anything after

Whats the new trend...

Oh yes, keep the placenta attached to the baby for a couple of weeks until it "naturally" drops off, errr ok then

But only if it's in a special velvet placenta bag from etsy

Oh yes pretty I heard about this lotus birthing yesterday!! WTF

misses point of the thread

Jesus pretty some people are just bloody mad. Imagine the school run?

Im shocked... do you mean Cath Kidston don't do them? Will I have to stick it in the same bag as my apple? Now way!

No of course been on the gin soave

DS and I couldn't stop laughing at the programme WTF! Do you think she intends to freeze dry it once it drops off so she can "hide" it in all manner of uber healthy recipes

Littlebearpad - sorry but that is wrong. www.qub.ac.uk/schools/psy/News/Title,493799,en.html?utm_content=bufferb51e6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Does anyone sensible ever believe evidence from the us?

Another mumsnet cracker

Excuse my boredom of the bullying and worrying of pregnant women but have been preggers in 1989/91/1999/2001 and all the above advice was trotted out as nauseum

Don't even fucking start on feeding weaning and sleeping babies

Gosh, totally. Fancy using research to try and improve the health of women and their babies, crazy talk isn't it! What bullies indeed!

I have to say in my very terribly uncouth working class way I have to agree with that statement

However, I do love the programme "friends"

Everything in moderation is perfectly ok. I don't need to read a trillion pages of research to know that.

A fag every now and again is fine, so is a few drinks.

Minty and Hully I luvs you!

I didn't actually know it was only one drink a week. I BURNED the baby book that suggested I could have half a glass of champagne at Christmas as a treat. Add a tiny slice of cake. Cunt book.

My mum quoted me some study from nine wells hospital in dundee which said you could have 5 units a week.... And you're now saying one?
*eyes healthy children who seem to be just fine and dandy but who are probably going to develop gout or Ebola or something thanks to my hideous alcoholic ways"

No. Just like I think it is fine to have wine when not pregnant but not to smoke.

MissDuke, research and statistics tell us very little about individual outcomes.
I agree if you don't want to be worrying about alcohol in pregnancy, then don't drink at all.
I was not all that worried about my level of consumption, so I am comfortable with the, oh, I dunno, 20 units of alcohol I had in 9 months.

I really don't see how all the scare-mongering is helpful.

I wonder how many women stop smoking for the purpose of a pregnancy but their partners don't? Where is all the pressure on these fathers to be to stop smoking for the benefit of their children?

So putting alcohol in your bloodstream is better than nicotine? errr ok then Primal. How on earth does that make sense?

Im pro both in moderation.

From MissDuke's link: 'maternal consumption of alcohol may effect (sic) the behaviour, and by inference the brain, of the fetus.'

Pretty much anything you do may affect the behaviour of your foetus (and by inference its brain! Scary stuff!) Breathing a bit faster or slower for a few minutes, listening to music, watching corrie, exercising, sleeping on your left or right side, having sex, getting indigestion ...

'The results indicate that even low levels of alcohol affect the brain and behaviour of the fetus. Thus it is not possible to say that low levels of alcohol exposure do not effect (sic) the fetus.'

No shit, sherlock

Women don't need this. We need sensible advice about proven harm and the magnitude of the risk - not 'may' or 'by inference' - so we can make properly informed decisions for ourselves and our pregnancies.

Does anybody remember the advice a few years ago that pregnant women should avoid 'household chemicals'? It was probably quite sensible advice in an ideal world but you don't hear much about it these days - maybe it was just deemed a bit too inconvenient for pregnant women to stop having anything to do with household chemicals. Bad enough they can't empty the cat tray, heaven forfend they'll stop cleaning the loo as well! Stop them enjoying an occasional drink? Pfft who gives a shit! They're only women.

One glass of wine or one fag a week probably is OK, as long as it is just the one. I suppose the danger with the fags is it might be hard to stop at one (it is, I am an ex smoker, although luckily when pregnant ciggy smoke made me feel sick so I never felt tempted.)

PrettyFeet its not the nicotine that does the most damage*, it's the carbon monoxide. The baby doesn't get the optimum amount of oxygen when you smoke.

*There are some rat studies on nicotine's effect on foetal brains. The studies are full of 'could's and 'suggests', and have not been replicated in humans. Nicotine on its own is not ideal in pregnancy (a bit like caffeine) but you can get NRT prescribed if you can't quit because NICE recognise that the science is not conclusive and it's better than inhaling smoke on a regular basis.

we arent rats.

a coffee
a drink
a fag

are all ok in my book.

what about stress? has anyone mentioned it?

stress and what that does to your body is the worst thing. If having a fag now and again or a couple of drinks helps a pregnant woman cope then all hail to that.