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'm surprised because I thought that, certainly in the under-30s age range, smoking was deeply uncool, and also that with the smoking ban the numbers had dropped hugely. I thought only about 13% of people in the UK smoked. Don't know where I got that figure from though!

It's a bit depressing. I know of course that it's an addiction (and so expensive these days!!) but if you can't stop doing something that's so provably so harmful to your baby, it doesn't, to me at any rate, suggest you're going to be any great shakes at being a parent (and I think that about fathers who don't give up, too).

I was told yesterday the guideline is now no alcohol but by George I'll still be having my small glass of champagne on Christmas Day if I fancy it. No harm in making the recommendation zero anyway, there's a lot of room for interpretation at the moment.

MrsE, I'm a non smoker and my test showed quite high results! I was shocked and already imagining calling the fire brigade to check my house but we switched machine and I got zero next time. Slightly worrying how unreliable the machines are.

I must admit, I thought it would be higher.

I'm amazed. I barely know anyone who smokes at all, never mind in pregnancy.

I quit as soon as I found out I was pregnant. I literally just threw them away and that was that - I'd had a hard time quitting in the past but I just knew I had to do it.

I went to the hospital at the weekend and the lady in the bed next to me was asked if she smoked, said yes and the doctor asked if she'd been offered help to quit, and she said yes but declined the offer - what the actual fuck?? I can't get my head round why women choose to smoke when the risks to their babies are so high. Why would you deliberately increase the risk of cot death?

Tbh I wish social services would get involved - in my opinion it makes you an unfit mother as you are deliberately causing harm to your child. We know so much about the dangers of smoking, which is fine if you're a consenting adult who smokes but to force those dangers onto a child who has no choice at all (and could die as a result) is disgusting.

'Driving too fast is not comparable to smoking during pregnancy - the risks associated with smoking during pregnancy are measurable and published, driving too fast has zero health risks unless you have an accident.'

Approximately 3,000 people are killed or injured due to speeding every year. I'd imagine that number is far higher than the number of babies affected by maternal smoking.

Yanbu to be shocked by it, I am too.

All the information out there on how bad smoking is for the unborn baby, why are women still doing this? I don't smoke and I don't in general care if someone else does, but there is something about smoking when pregnant that isn't right the child doesn't have a choice. Surely giving the baby the best possible start should be the priority for anyone carrying a child

I'm surprised it is as low as 1 in 10, I think that is very good.

I think 10% is quite high considering all the info we're given on rates of people smoking being cut dramatically since the smoking ban.

It's a difficult subject because as uncomfortable as it makes me an addiction is still an addiction and should be treated as such. However there is an awful lot of help out there for pregnant women to stop smoking, (at least in my area) all you have to do is go to your GP surgery and there are countless leaflets and phone numbers to ring so I think not even attempting to quit whilst pregnant is pretty selfish, especially considering SIDS risks.

The other day I did see a woman walking with a pram facing her, baby must've been 4-6 months old and she was smoking and the smoke was being blown INTO the pram. That enraged me more than someone smoking whilst pregnant because she was with her friend and I just thought honestly? Could you have not given the pram to your friend and gone off to have a cigarette if you were really desperate? Like you may be addicted but there were SO many steps you could have taken to ensure your baby was far away while you're smoking.

I'm pregnant and also work in a hospital (different to one I'm booked in at) and the amount of obviously pregnant women that stand outside the doors no longer shocks me. I think it's a shame and I wish it didn't happen but it does, smoking is legal and addictive so 10% is probably a fairly modest estimate.
I also know a couple of people who have later admitted smoking during pregnancy but at the time claimed to have stopped.
We are Co2 monitored at booking in appointment and hopefully that will force a bit more honesty and give a more accurate figure, although not sure if it's national policy.

Yes, help is there, but even with all the help in the world, quitting is still incredibly hard. I was shocked by 1 in 7 British families having used a food bank, 1 in 10 expectant mums smoking seems little by comparison.

It doesn't shock me at all, mumsnet is not representative of all UK mothers, not by a long shot and smoking seems overtly demonised on here whereas alcohol is encouraged as a daily stress reliever.

I saw a heavily pregnant woman buying her lunch in a corner shop, she realised at the check out the sandwich she had picked had mayo in it and told the cashier she couldn't have mayo as she was pregnant so swapped it for a different sandwich, then proceeded to ask for a pack of camel cigarettes. The cashier handed over a pack to her, she then said she needed the blue version as she didn't like the one the cashier had given. She lit up outside the shop and was standing smoking as I left. I was quite shocked at that point but it was the first time I had seen a pregnant woman smoke. I found the concept she would reject mayonnaise but not cigarettes very strange, she clearly knew the risks. But plenty of women drink while pregnant, and many more defend their rights to, and you are kidding yourself if you think it's any better having a glass of wine than a fag imo. I also know women who have been advised to cut down rather than quit by their doctors/midwives

I was a heavy smoker, and quit in early pregnancy before I was aware that my persistent 3 week 'tummy bug' was actually HG, if I tried to smoke I threw up, I was glad when I took the pregnancy test that I had already stopped when I was only just pregnant. I imagine it was in some ways easier for me to quit as I felt so rotten anyway that withdrawal symptoms were somewhat masked.

It wasn't until I was pregnant i understood why women would smoke during pregnancy (either once, or the odd one, or less than usual or the full whammy) it's not easy having your body taken over for 9 months, especially if you feel miserable and tired/ in pain/ etc etc.

Maybe the mother to be has 3 kids already, an abusive partner and fags help her get through it, maybe she was a previous drug addict and a fag every now and then helps her cope etc..
I doubt most who smoke when pregnant don't atleast cut down .

I remember driving home after a miscarriage and saw a heavily pregnant woman smoking. It made me so angry......

Society has changed radically if it's that low.

However people on Mumsnet are really not representative of the population - the craziest thing I see on here is how anti electronic cigarettes people are on here

I find that utterly baffling. Electronic cigarettes are harmless ingredient wise (yes, they promote 'smoking' so not entirely harmless) but when I grew up EVERYONE smoked, like 70% of people - you could buy fags for 5p outside schools and in shops, you could smoke everywhere !

When electronic cigs came in for about 5 minutes everyone thought it was wonderful that the population now had a chance of life - that smoking related cancers would be almost wiped out!

And in just a very few years we've gone to not wanting people to puff on an entirely harmless substance ANYWHERE

It's like we forget just how far we've come and then suddenly society wants us all to eat kale as a staple

I will be honest here. You can judge me if you like. My notes say I am a pregnant smoker. I smoked for 15 years and the day I found out I was pregnant I put down the cigs. But I used an ecig to stop, starting with nicotine liquid mixed with zero nicotine liquid. Every day I increased the amount of zero until I was 100 percent nicotine free. It took me until the end of my 1st trimester. I am convinced this was the best way for me. I felt automatically healthier once I switched to ecig and it made quitting manageable for me. I quit caffeine and junk food it is just not comparable to nicotine. The addiction is like having a constant itch on the brain. It took all the energy I had to quit, I don't regret it, best thing I ever did. I also don't regret the ecig, it made it possible for me.

PS now I don't use ecig either. Just breathing fresh air.

Oh I have an e cig. It's marvellous. I could manage not smoking when my kids wrre small but they're older now, they go to school, I go to work and the opportunities to smoke are just too numerous. Like any addict, I will seek out opportunities. Without my e cig I would definitely be on the cigs right now.

15.9% of the uk population smoke

Speeding is far worse because you could kill actual other human beings

I can only imagine that none of you had mothers who smoked? My mother smokes to this day. Quite obviously I didn't die of SIDS, and I wasn't a small or premature baby either. I have good lungs, always have. And I'm not a medical miracle or even slightly unusual. Do you think 10% of babies are dying of SIDS or being born premature or having lung problems?

I think smoking is disgusting, but stop pretending this is about anything more than class. Recreational coke snorters on here get off scot-free for heaven's sake - but "nice girls" have never smoked, have they? That's all you really care about, unless you're appalled at both.

I think people on here think they're above the "dw hun xx" culture but you're not, you just say it to coke snorting mothers in sole care of their kids instead of smoking pregnant women, because you perceive those women to be of the same class

I hope we can get down to the target and below. We need better intervention for kids who take up smoking, nobody should, almost nobody alive should have thought it was a good idea to start let alone teenagers nowadays. Maybe the new laws that are coming in about reducing their exposure to smoking by their parents will help.

I think smoking in pregnancy is disgusting. The same with drinking.

I'll never understand it and people can make excuses and convince themselves that it isn't "that bad" but they are essentially poisoning their babies in the womb.

If you can't put your baby first for 9 months how do you expect to do it for the rest of their lives?

I suffered from really severe antenatal depression during my first pregnancy. I can see how people struggle to quit.

rinabean The effects of smoking can kill other human beings, just not immediately.

I haven't mentioned class anywhere, nor I am here to judge. I am genuinely surprised by this figure; I personally thought it was much, much lower - to me it's shocking.

It's interesting to read about e-cigs on this thread- I was unawware they weren't dangerous. Do e-cigs get promoted to pregnant women as an alternative?

I stopped but I had a really awful day when I was pregnant and went for a walk. I found an old pack of cigs in my bag and i had one. It didn't help and I felt awful but three women went past on bikes and stopped and screamed at me in a wooded area on a path and it was honestly the worst I have ever been treated. In essence they bullied me and probably caused more stress to my baby than I was. DD is beautiful and there is absolutely nothing wrong with her but I will never forget how these women made me feel.