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?

As others have said, smoking was completely acceptable in the past. I was born in the late 1950s and I always remember my mum telling me that the thing that made her give up smoking was when she had just bathed me as a small baby and dropped the ash from the cigarette she was smoking on my clean tummy😆. My daughter was born in 1992, and I can remember there being a room on my ward where you could smoke.

Maybe guilt isn’t the right word, but certainly the burden of information given to pregnant women, and the pressure to not eat so many things, not to drink (obviously), to exercise, not put on too much weight, to have a natural (preferably drug-free) birth is surely WAY worse than 50 years ago.

Yes, people are better informed. But it’s tough on women and the pressure and judgement coming from every angle is tough.

I was born at the end of the 1950s and my mother smoked throughout the pregnancy, as she did with my four older siblings. No one batted an eye back then.
Edited to say - she was also encouraged by her GP to drink a pint of stout a day "for the iron".

I've heard people say that within the last decade or so - it's still a belief with some currency (and clearly quite a convenient belief to have...).

As others have said, it's easy to judge the past, but people do what they do with the knowledge they have. I wouldn't have dreamed of smoking in pregnancy, but was absolutely devastated after reading this article: I had three miscarriages before my first baby, all while living in an area of really bad air pollution. Future generations might judge us for what we expose our babies (including in utero) to, too...

I was born 1981. My Mum smoked all the way through, all the photos of her pregnant with me she had a cigarette in her hand. I was just shy of 9lb, she says it was a good job she smoked imagine how big I would have been 🙄

My mum smoked through both pregnancies. I was born at 32 weeks in 1975 and was in an incubator with jaundice for a few weeks. She had pre-eclampsia but my sister and I had it too in our pregnancies so it may be genetic and not linked to smoking.

When she gave birth to my sister in 1980 she talked about a midwife ripping a cigarette from her hand in the labour ward because she was near to an oxygen tank!

There was a smoking room in the hospital in 1995 but by 1996 it was gone.

There were smoking in the toddler group I went to, they only changed the rules so there was no smoking in council buildings in around 2000 and the smokers had to go outside.

It definitely was acceptable. My grandmother said it was encouraged when she was pregnant in 1963

I was born in 1978, in a maternity home rather than a hosptial - the newborn photos of me on the ward have ashtrays in them! My Mum didn't smoke but I think every other member of the family did.

My cousin had her children in 2003/2005 and smoked through both pregancies - she was told to stop at every medical appointment but that seem to make her even more determined. She took herself outside the hospital agianst medical advice, whilst in labour, to smoke and still smokes 20 a day now. I've no idea how she affords it!

Yes it was common then sadly. The majority of people I knew (when I was a child in the 1970s) smoked. Most who were over 40 at the time (who had started pre-1950s) never gave it up. They smoked til they died. Some people who started smoking in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or noughties, stopped after a few years, and never re-started. Some never stopped. The majority did.

I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of people I know who smoke now. And that is 3 neighbours. My 2 adult DC have around 25 friends between them, and not a single one smokes. Nor do any of their colleagues. None of my friends smoke either, or any colleagues. There's a certain type of person who smokes IMO. Most smokers now, don't seem to be in the middle class/upper classes. And they don't seem to the brightest, most educated people.

Post mid-1980s, if you smoked while pregnant, you are very selfish. No WAY is that child's health not going to be affected by your selfish, grim habit. Also, you stink, your breath stinks, your clothes stink, and your house stinks. Insurances cost much more, you are passing on your foul habit to anyone sitting with you/standing with you/passing you, (with the stink/passive smoke,) you can't smoke anywhere now hardly, and it's incredibly anti-social.

Anyone who smokes now (in the 2020s) is an idiot, truly. And don't even get me started on what you are if you smoke whilst pregnant in this day and age! I had my 2 in the early-mid 1990s, and even then - 30 years ago, it was known that smoking will harm your baby. Had been a fact for YEARS.

It's just terrifying to think that on top of mothers being encouraged to smoke as it would 'relax them, and it would make the baby smaller to push out easy, (pre 1980s.) And that up to about 20-25 years ago, you could actually smoke in most workplaces, cinemas, on trains and buses and planes, and in restaurants and cafes. Grim thought now really! 😬

And the smoking apologists needn't bother saying their mum smoked while pregnant and THEY had no affects from it. Because that's not true. You will have (or did once have) at least one health issue that resulted from your mother smoking while she was pregnant. If you smoked when YOU were pregnant, then you will have affected your baby somehow, with something. Something that may be apparent straight away, or something that shows itself later. But no way will there be no affect.

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And the smoking apologists needn't bother saying their mum smoked while pregnant and THEY had no affects from it. Because that's not true. You will have (or did once have) at least one health issue that resulted from your mother smoking while she was pregnant. If you smoked when YOU were pregnant, then you will have affected your baby somehow, with something. Something that may be apparent straight away, or something that shows itself later. But no way will there be no affect.

That's not how risk works. Some will have massive effects, some something minor and plenty no harm at all. That doesn't mean it's ok to smoke while pregnant, but there's no guarantees.

I think times were very different. I trained as a nurse between 2004-2007 and one of the jobs on the night shift we were given as students was to empty and clean the ashtrays in the patients day room. There was also 2 rooms off the side of hospital canteen, one was for staff to have lunch and smoke, the other was for patients/ visitors to eat and smoke. Seems absolutely bonkers now.

And there it is ^ One post after mine, Smoking apologist. 'Errr yeah but, SOME babies won't be affected by the mother smoking.'

PLEASE tell me you don't have children! 🙏

Yes I think it was more acceptable I was born in 1973 and my sister was born in 1972 ,my mum smoked throughout her pregnancies too .

I have two fabulous children. I'm also not a smoking apologist, I'm asthmatic and hate it.

I do understand risk though.

Your classist comments are also appalling btw.

I was born in the mid seventies. I asked my mother if she'd stopped smoking during her pregnancy and she said "oh I cut down". Also not breast fed and people smoking all around me including in the car for my whole childhood.

Yes - my mother did it (as well as my father - both doctors).
In fairness my father used to smoke while in the operating theatre (neurosurgeon).
It was a different country tho.

I was born in 82 and my Mum said she was sat up in her hospital bed, nursing me and smoking at the same time!

Aaww 😊 totally different time wasn't it. That is so sweet about your mam Miltoning everything x

In the 90s I knew someone who started to smoke as she wanted a small baby.

Born mid 80s, mum smoked throughout, as did my dad. She also smoked in the house until I was about 16. Have had asthma my whole life and struggle to breathe in high altitudes. Covid went straight to my lungs and nearly finished me off.

A girl at my school was pregnant at 16 in 2006 and carried on smoking as she wanted the baby to be small.

Such a different time - she didn't know it at the time, but no wonder we're asthmatic and caught everything going. (Genetics at play there too, though.)

We can all only do our best with what we know at the time. We'll all fuck up unwittingly, and we'll all unwittingly make the right choices elsewhere.

I was born in the 80's my mum smoked through both pregnancies. I worked with a lady who had her children in the late 70's early 80 and she was allowed to smoke in b ed while in labor 😳

My mum's friend, after giving birth, had a ciggie and a cuppa with the midwife!! Smoking aside, I don't think they would have time for that now.

Also as an aside, my mum stayed in hospital for 10 days after I was born, because I was an emergency cesarean. I was so surprised when I had DC and we were expected to leave hospital the hospital the following day. It was not a cesarean but I had had 2x PPH so in my head I thought I'd be kept in for observations or something.

A friend of mine then gave birth in the morning at about 9am and left the hospital just after lunchtime.

DP was born in 1966. His mum smoked throughout her pregnancy. He was premature and underweight. He has been exceptionally thin his whole life to the point of being very self conscious and wonders if it was because his mum smoked while pregnant with him. I have no idea if this is possible, but am inclined to think that, while low birth weight and premature birth can very clearly be linked to smoking, his thin frame as a child and adult is probably genetic. I'm not completely certain though. Not my area of expertise!

I was born in 1967. My mum gave up smoking when she was pregnant with me, resumed it after she stopped breastfeeding, then gave up again when pregnant with my sister. This was repeated for my brother until she finally gave up permanently a year or so after he was born. I know we still had all the second hand smoke, but I admire her for having the willpower to give up while pregnant. It can't have been easy.