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?

Well when I was pregnant in 1991 there was a dedicated smoking room on the ward. Then again in 1994 there was a smoking deck right outside the ward. Wasn't until 1998 that they expected pregnant women to go outside the actual hospital building to smoke and then it was literally outside the door so you still had to walk through the fumes to get to the ward (same door was also entrance to the children's ward)

A friend was supoosedly also told this in the early 2000s. That the stress of quitting would be worse than continuing to smoke. Bullshit. Said friend also happily smoked in the car with her children.

I am not sure if you meant it to seem that way, but the fact tgat your mother smoked while she was pregnant wouldn’t have caused your jaundice. Mothers who have never smoked do have babies with jaundice.

Acceptable? My gran was encouraged to take up smoking by her gp, to calm down for the sake of the baby.

Not in my experience. It was very much frowned on. I gave up smoking as soon as I was pregnant in 1982. We all knew the risks by then and even in 1972 if we saw someone smoking while heavily pregnant people would definitely frown. Just not as much as they would now.

I smoked through all of my pregnancies, as did my mother and her mother. I was warned about low birth weight but to be honest I never ever saw any proof that smoking was harmful to babies, I saw so many women who smoked give birth to healthy babies. I also saw women who didn't smoke have small babies. Mine were all over 7lb. My ex husband used to say that our babies were unsettled and cried a lot for the first few weeks because they were going through nicotine withdrawal. But I saw lots of women with babies who cried a lot and they didn't smoke. I'm not claiming that it isn't harmful, just explaining why women didn't think at the time it would actually cause harm because there was no real life evidence of it.

My mum smoked with one pregnancy in 1983 but had given up for the previous on in 1981. Neither sibling is smaller or less healthy than the other.

(Not to defend smoking while pregnant - just to add some mroe anecdotal colour to the debate).

My husbands mum liked to tell the “funny” story of the woman next to her (on oxygen) complaining about her smoking in the maternity ward and how many times the nurses had to take them off her! She was a heavy smoker for most of her life as were/are most of her family so smoking in pregnancy was seen as the norm.

It was just a thing of the time. We learn, research and teach, and advise with our findings. The effects of smoking on smoker were only being realised in the 1960s, and then that had to filter down to the healthcare professionals and the general public. I'm sure some of the things advised now for pregnancy will change in years to come as will alot of advice and regulations for many things.

I has my children in late 80s early 90s and it was common for mother's to be to smoke. The hospital actually had a smoking area between ore and ante natal wards, although I think bt my last you needed to go outside to smoke.

It was widely believed that smoking caused a smaller baby span easier labour.

Yes this is true.
One woman I know of had hers well just under 3 yrs ago now. Smoked heavily throughout. They told her because of that, she might have a small baby.
And her response was 'well I will just have a small baby then' 😳

I think both her kids are asthmatic, I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

I agree , hindsight is wonderful, I wonder what they will be saying I a few more years time about vapeing and weight loss injection.
I know both have positive aspects, giving up cigs is obvious but what is actually in vspes and how strictly is it regulated?
Weight loss injections are hopefully regulated carefully but so were many other drugs in the past that we now know are harmful.

My last was 2017 and I got told to slowly cut down. I can't remember the stress thing or if she told me to quit smoking completely actually. She told me to cut down for sure, but I don't recall her telling me to quit.

No you couldn't

Someone drinking wine or beer isn't affecting everyone around them, and making everyone and everywhere stink, and making peoples clothes and hair stink, and making their eyes water, and making them have to wash their clothes and hair to get rid of the stench.

Daft whatabouttery! 🙄

I have to say the idea of nicotine-addicted babies crying because they want their fix is horrible and is what made me quit smoking when I started planning for a family. I knew from experience how horrible it was to be craving nicotine and did not want my baby to be going through that!

Agree that being a non-smoker was previously considered to be a bit odd. My parents have both always been non-smokers and other relatives (rest of my family smoke) thought they were quite eccentric and strange for this. My granddad died age 60 from lung cancer so this probably is what cemented their stance.

I think my mum smoked in all her pregnancies, she cut down, but didn't fully quit.
Two babies were stillborn, due to pre-eclampsia. I was premature and weighed 4.5 lbs but was otherwise healthy.

What is the medical advice for weight-loss injections and pregnancy? Just out of interest as not something I have ever thought about till now!!

Unless it has been proven safe via research it will be contraindicated.

I agree with this, I was born early 60s and my mother was given a leaflet on giving up smoking during pregnancy. (She never threw anything away so I have seen the leaflet!)

Sorry quoted wrong post!

My daughter was born jaundiced and premature. I have never smoked in my life. My husbands cousins smoked during theirs because they said that the anxiety caused by quitting was worse for the babies than the crap in cigarettes. Their kids were fine. It's like some would like the sinners kids to have something happen to them to say I told u so. Usually nothing happens. Oh my MIL smoked during her pregnancy in 1972. My husbands fine.

I’m a 1972 baby too and my mum smoked through her pregnancy. I was brought up in a haze of fag smoke until I was around 5 when both parents gave up because cigarettes were too expensive at 37.5p a pack!

My mum was advised when expecting me in 1984 to not quit smoking as pregnancy can be a stressful time!

I was born in 69. It was completely normal to do it. Also a daily Guinness for "iron". There is a picture of me as a newborn at my christening. I was 2 weeks old and you can barely see anything for the clouds of smoke. All the women crowding round my mum holding me had a fag in their hands (as did my mum). Fortunately my parents gave up smoking by 30 ish so I didn't grow up in a house full of smoke.

In other smoking horrors, I recall going with my Nan to see an uncle who was dying of lung cancer in hospital. My Nan sat down and lit a fag. Can you even imagine that? I had my eldest in 1998. There was a smoking balcony on the ward that mums went out to. It stank every time the door opened.

still can't believe my mum smoked through both pregnancies in late 70s/early 80s.

We also grew up in a house where she smoked all the time (and my dad as well) in the rooms we were in. Hate it.