One in ten smoke in pregnancy

[SoTheMoon]

AIBU to be totally shocked by this?

I honestly thought it was much, much lower. Government target announced today is to get it down to 6%.

I dunno. It's much better than alcohol as an addiction. Lesser impact on the growing child. It's not good but it could be worse if people need a vice.

And if the downside is SIDS/stillbirth, then fine. That's not good but it's societally probably better than having a child who is drug addicted or has FAS. Do you want the societal cost of FAS/drug addicted children? The impact is pretty much only on the family involved. If they miscarry, I don't suffer. They suffer. So is it really my business even to judge? We all decide our own risk tolerance. The alternative is much worse.

It's a CO test they do I think, testing for carbon monoxide and the nurse told me in my initial appt that sometimes it raises awareness of faulty boilers as well.. now I'm doubting that though, and thinking they just don't trust us to say if we're smoking or not...

I quit as soon as I got my bfp and haven't looked back but I suppose I would still have to say I smoked in pregnancy because the first couple of weeks I didn't know...

@MrsTerryPratchett that was uncharacteristically rude. Of course she understands correlation/causation, you only have to look at the evidence to see that maternal smoking leads to a higher incidence of stillbirth and premature labour as well as other complications. Whilst no-one can usually say 100% what caused a stillbirth or other problem, we can make a very educated guess - as TP himself said in I'm Going Postal:

"It is wrong to judge by appearances. Despite his expression, which was that of a piglet having a bright idea, and his mode of speech, which might put you in mind of a small, breathless, neurotic but ridiculously expensive dog, Mr Horsefry might well have been a kind, generous and pious man. In the same way, the man climbing out of your window in a stripy jumper, a mask and a great hurry might merely be lost on the way to a fancy-dress party, and the man in the wig and robes at the focus of the courtroom might only be a transvestite who wandered in out of the rain. Snap judgements can be so unfair."

@AHedgehogCanNeverBeBuggered

Using Terry against me! I'm

We can't make an 'educated guess' because statistics are what counts here. An 'educated guess' here is inaccurate judgement.

According to the NHS, Smoking is in the increased risk category, along with being over 35, having epilepsy or diabetes, or giving birth to twins.

It is NOT in the 'causes' category.

New on here, this is my first post!

Currently 3 months in to my first pregnancy....

This thread makes fascinating but ultimately quite uncomfortable reading. I thought mumsnet was going to be a more warm and fluffy environment than this! 😳

Overall, pretty shocked at how many of you seem to be smoker apologists. I get that it is important to make sure pregnant smokers are able to get help quitting asap and if they are demonised too much they won't do so, but the medical community is unanimous that there is no safe level of smoking during pregnancy. Whilst I don't want pregnant smokers to be so scared that they don't even ask for help, I also don't think it's healthy, safe or appropriate that they are being given the message that "well at least you've cut down, that's better than nothing" when really they need to stop immediately, or getting given the message that "whilst it's not ideal that you're smoking, I know you've got a lot of other stresses and pressures so it's okay for you to do it".

It's not okay! Low birth weight, increased risk of SIDs, increased risk of respiratory disorders for your baby (and as someone who had bad asthma as a child, not through smoking but just because it runs in our family, I take a very dim view of anyone who knowingly increases the risk of their kids getting asthma).

It's not a class issue - we'd judge a middle class alcoholic just as harshly for damaging her unborn child.

It's not a sexism or feminist issue either. Men shouldn't smoke with a baby on the way because of passive smoking. Men can drink when we are pregnant, we can't. This isn't sexism, it's just biology.

Well it is pretty bad... I wouldn't do it. But some women are extremely addicted to smoking and pregnancy can be stressful.Round here you would be deafened by a gale of TUTS if you were a pregnant lady smoking openly by roaming gangs of righteous old ladies; same ones who police baby welfare in Costa .

I gave up when we started TTC just in case. It was tough at first of course, but if you really want to quit (which you should if you are pregnant or ttc) then it's not that difficult really.

Maybe different people have different levels of willpower I guess, as I've always been able to give things up pretty easily.

I am shocked by this statistic.

I am ttc and on medication that is not definitely safe, so I feel really bad. I made an appointment to see a specialist for advice and he strongly advised me to stay on it as he thought the risks of coming off could be worse. So I feel a bit of a hypocrite commenting.

I do know my grandmother smoked through all her pregnancies and it seemed to be fine, obviously that was lucky because the risks are real, but I expect many of us had grandparents or great grandparents who did the same.

@itshappening there is a world of difference between being on medication which you have been told by a doctor you need to be on, and choosing to continue to smoke- which ultimately is still a lifestyle choice. Don't beat yourself up. Good luck with TTC. Xxx

One final note from me - those of you who smoked in the first few weeks before you found out you were pregnant, but then gave up immediately, and were recorded as smokers, I feel for you. There does appear to be a difference here between how smokers and drinkers are treated! Nobody has demonised me for having a couple of pints in the first couple of weeks before I got my test back, given that I stopped since....seems harsh that those of you who did the right thing as soon as you found out you were pregnant still get tarred with the "smoker" brush even thoughfor 8.5 out of 9 months-ish you were doing the right thing!

This thread seems to be full of people judging and yet only a handful of people posted on the thread where the OP was saying we need to help the problem. Great judge pregnant woman for smoking but don't help them to quit. Threads like this are just going to make pregnant women feel stressed and bad, surely we should be helping them quit. Offering resources to do so and supporting them ??
This is the kind of website many women join, when they first become pregnant, for advice. If one in ten of them smoke they're just going to walk away and feel shamed. Maybe they won't even tell their doctors because they know they'll be judged so may never get the support they need? It's easy to judge.

Thanks MrsBendy

Anyone remember LBC and its endless phone-ins?

There was once a woman who solemnly told us all that she was smoking while pregnant because that would make her baby immune from lung cancer!

The sad thing is people would still judge a pregnant woman who was vaping in public. Which doesn't make it any easier to swap

What an odd thread to spam on with a magical spell to get back your ex.

I wonder if we all sound a bit grumpy.

Reported of course.

+234 is Nigeria BTW, not Texas.