Smoking all through pregnancy - was it ever acceptable?

[ClayDell]

I was born in 1972

My mum fully admitted that she smoked throughout her pregnancy with me.

i looked at my medical records and I was in a special baby unit for the first month of my life with jaundice

Was smoking throughout pregnancy considered acceptable in 1972?

My Mum continued to smoke during her pregnancy with me (1973) and my brother (1975). There are photos of me as a baby next to a relative with a lit cigarette. Seems astonishing now. I was born prematurely and had breathing problems and have always wondered whether this was smoking related.

Yes, it was normal, smoking was advertised and encouraged back then.

You could also order a can of stout with your meals in hospital to keep your iron levels up

So she will have seen her peers being pregnant in the 50s and 60s for the most part. Very normal to smoke when pregnant in those days I would have thought.

I wouldn't judge a woman for smoking through a pregnancy in that era at all. It was a different time, and as a PP said, there will be things that we do that our DC and GDC will be horrified by.

I'm guessing you have a complicated relationship with your mum, and perhaps feel like she didn't prioritise you as she should have done. That may well be the case (although it's not just re smoking that parenting norms have changed), but I'd let her off the hook on the smoking front.

My mother stopped for the duration of her first 2 pregnancies in the late 70s. She decided it was pointless and smoked throughout all subsequent ones.

That doesn’t prove that smoking in pregnancy is safe.

Really surprised about the smoking room in the 90s!

I know my parents were considered very, very precious and stick-in-the-muds for asking relatives to smoke in different rooms from me when I was a newborn (early 80s) and were visiting my nan's house. And for not allowing anyone to smoke indoors when family visited us. Caused a lot of arguments, apparently 🥴😬

I was a mid-80s PFB (my mum miltoned every toy every night ) and my dad gave up smoking as soon as I was born - but smoked all through the pregnancy.

My husbands ex did with their 2 in the 90s

I had a work colleague who smoked throughout her whole pregnancy, didn’t wven attempt to cut down. She still smokes now in the car with her child, with the windows up 🤢🤢 I feel guilty that my DH vapes (never anywhere near me or my child.)

From the 60s onwards there were campaigns against smoking but it took years to change attitudes. Smoking indoors (pubs, restaurants etc), was only banned in England in 2007. So 18 years ago, whenever you went out you would be passive smoking.

Same my mum was a nurse and she admitted she smoked during her labour with me!!

The understanding around negative health implications was a lot later than people seem to imagine. It was rapid once it set in of course, but before that, yes women smoked throughout pregnancies.

My grandmothers much older sister had a lung removed in her late teens due to TB. She was advised to take up smoking to “exercise” her remaining lung. This would have been in the early 1940’s, I think. She lived to her mid 90’s, gave up smoking in her 70’s. Quite astonishing all round, really.

My inlaws were not happy at being asked to smoke outside when we had ds in 1984.
They thought we were over the top.
2 years later dh's db and dsil also banned them from smoking near their baby.
Inlaws gave up smoking completely then.

It's the carbon monoxide that so bad for the unborn dc.

I was born in 1968. My Mother smoked throughout her pregnancy with me, also previously and refused to give up afterwards despite many recommendations in old age from doctors and other health professionals concerning various health conditions that were exacerbated by her smoking including AMD.

She also travelled from London to Scotland (after 3 previous miscarriages) in her third trimester. Went into distress and had to be rushed 40 miles to the nearest major hospital.
I was just over a month premature.
I’ll never be sure if my epilepsy is related to that, getting measles in the hottest summer London had in years at 3, some weird genetic throwback or a combo of all 3.
She drank too during her pregnancy with me as well.
I was clearly doomed 😂

Yep and I remember my mum telling me some people smoked more so that they would have smaller babies! Crazy when you think of it.

My mum said this too, she use to drink Guinness whilst feeding me on the ward. Thankfully I was born healthy with no health conditions

Mum said the first thing she did after birth was light up.
Everyone on the ward was smoking, with their newborns.

If you are shocked about women smoking during pregnancy in the 1970’s, just how shocked are you about the routine prescription of tranquillisers (E.g. Valium, etc.) to women during the 1960’s.
It was so rife, that the Rolling Stones wrote a song about it (Mother’s Little Helper) - the first song to address middle-class drug dependency, written in 1965.
And people still go on about “The good old days”…
TBH, I’m shocked that you’re shocked - we are supposed to progress; doesn’t this mean that we have? (Although I’m sure that in another 50 years people will probably have gained enough sanity to be shocked about the widespread use of Botox, Fillers and Liposuction in the 2020’s…)

Yes. Even when it was being warned against, it wasn't seen as the hideous thing it is now. I remember a cousin being born in 1991, we went to see her and her mum on the ward and when we got there her mum was in the smoking lounge. Smoking rooms in a maternity unit would certainly suggest that expectant mothers smoking at time of delivery was still 'normal'. Out of all my mum's sisters she was the only one not smoking when pregnant afaik. Genuinely insane now to think of.

On the jaundice front, is there a clear link?

We were told that about 70% of babies have jaundice at our antenatal classes yet none of ours did (12 babies, all non smokers). I was wondering about the discrepancy.

Or do stats not get updated that frequently?

I did notice that the miscarriage rate amongst my friends had a big spike in the group who smoke.

My sister and I were born in the 60s, mum smoked through both pregnancies. She was a pediatric nurse.

Just had a flashback from when I was around 12 and used to go to Morrisons cafe. Think it was a Safeway then. There was a smoking section and non smoking section in the cafe but nothing whatsoever separating them. Gross.

It absolutely was. My mother (pregnant late 1970s) was told to continue smoking as it would help her relax.

Yes, when my mum went to the doctor with serious health problems, she was told it was all in her mind, offered Valium.

She walked away…

What kids? Me at 7lb 9 or my brother at 9lb 8