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shocking- deliberate smoking whilst pregnant

58 replies

MadameMorticiaMills · 04/10/2006 07:38

In todays Guardian, report on smoking during pregnancy just to have a smaller baby. Are they for real? here

I had heard this sort of thing before but kind of dismissed it as a myth, that these were just tales, but apparently not.

OP posts:
belgo · 04/10/2006 10:40

Maybe all mother in laws are the same (I'm sure there are plenty of threads on MILs!)

joelallie · 04/10/2006 10:52

Ha! I know what you mean Becca! All mine were big - even dd was 9lb 6. There was a woman in the bed next to me who had a tiny little baby - gorgeous little thing but made mine look like a whale. Her grandpa came up to look at DD and said that he had thought she was a boy as she was so big. They were friendly people and used to come over an chat and make a few jokes about the difference between the 2. Being at the weepy stage I got upset for my poor little girl. Met the mum at the HV clinic about 6 months later and her delicate little babe had turned into a right porker and my humungeous bouncing baby had grown longer and slimmer and looked so pretty. Not that I gloated at all.....

CorpseBride · 04/10/2006 11:38

My friends who had 9lb/10lb babies first time round JOKED that they would take up smoking in a vain attempt to have a smaller baby next time.

How is our sex/pregnancy education still so lousy? Makes me

SoupDragon · 04/10/2006 11:40

I've joked for years that the warning about smoking resulting in low birthweight babies was stupid and how it sounded an attractive prospect. Couldn't believe it when I caught it on the news this morning!

belgo · 04/10/2006 11:43

I don't think sex/pregnancy education is lousy. In fact, judging by MN, we are more informed then ever. If a pregnant woman smokes during pregnancy to have a smaller baby, then she's made an informed choice. It's a shame that her baby doesn't get a chance to make a choice.

acnebrideofFrankenstein · 04/10/2006 11:43

but isn't it true that having a larger baby hurts more? i know i have joked a few times when pregnant about what I would do for a less huge baby? when I was on a paediatric ward with ds for a few days, one of the nurses said 'it's the ones with large babies 10lb plus I feel sorry for' and i said 'the small ones hurt too' (ds was 7.11 and I was still haunted by the birth at that stage) and she just looked at me and said 'nothing like as much'

zippitippitoes · 04/10/2006 11:45

a smaller baby does not equal a less painful labour

SparklyGothKat · 04/10/2006 11:46

I thought the labour with a small baby is harder, because the baby isn't filling the birth canel and its harder to push out and they slip back up too. I know that my premature births were hard.

Blu · 04/10/2006 11:51

Hmmmm.
So they smoke - and then look for a way to 'pass it off' or justify it, and 'I want a smaller baby' springs to mind? Or rather, they sue that as a way to justify it to themselves.
I quite often cited weight loss (for me) as a reason for breast-feeding - but wasn't totally serious about it.

I can see people using smaller babies as a sort of 'in denial' reason for not stopping smoking once they are pregnant, but I wonder if there are real documented examples of women starting to smoke for the first time when they become pg in order to reduce baby size? I would guess not.

Blu · 04/10/2006 11:52

I don't think it IS true that smaller babies equal easier labour - but look how often a report of a 10lb baby results in a post of 'ouch' on MN.

CorpseBride · 04/10/2006 11:56

Excepting the extremes - could you really tell at the point of birth whether the baby weighed 5lb or 10lbs? I wouldn't have thought so.

belgo · 04/10/2006 11:57

The head size and position seems more relevant to me.

dinny · 04/10/2006 12:03

my ml did this when pg with my dh - she freely admits it! her first baby was a whopper, so she wanted a smaller one next time.....and he was much smaller than her first too

belgo · 04/10/2006 12:05

DInny - I just find it horrifying that women would put their baby's health at risk for something so trivial.

dinny · 04/10/2006 12:08

I know... In her defence, her first son had v difficult delivery and is profoundly deaf as a result, so think her intention was good, iyswim.

WestCountryLass · 04/10/2006 20:32

My Mum did this when she was PG with my brother and I. Her Dr said if you smoke you will have a small baby, so she smoked all the more Course this was over 30 years and I am pretty sure they did not mention prematurity etc.

Vev · 05/10/2006 07:40

I told my daughter that every she inhaled on a fag the baby inhaled the smoke as well. She stopped. He was 8lb 11oz. She didn't start smoking again after the birth either. I can't stand seeing people smoking around babies/chilen.

GoingQuietlyMad · 05/10/2006 14:07

I have heard this comment from people, but it is just that they don't want to give up smoking really, and among their peer group that has become acceptable on the basis that "well, who wants a big baby?" It sounds very selfish and careless but really it is just a flippant remark.

They aren't really smoking to make the baby smaller IMHO.

Does anyone else think that the furore is an overreaction? You can give people health advice, but the freedom of the individual is to take it or not. In our grandparents day, a lot of mothers smoked right through pregnancy, breastfeeding etc. I'm sure it is bad, but I think some of these mothers have got bigger problems to deal with.

Maybe to them, giving up smoking doesnt seem a priority?

sweetkitty · 05/10/2006 14:13

6lbs 3ozs DD1 hurt a lot more than 9lb 3ozs DD2, DD1 tore me like mad, DD2 I had no stitches at all.

Saw a heavily pregnant woman going out for a fag at toddlers the other day yes I did judge her sorry but surely you can give up for the sake of your baby for a few months?

hunkermunster · 05/10/2006 14:18

Apparently it's "really addictive" and "they can't help it", SK.

Selfish fucks.

BATtymumma · 05/10/2006 14:19

i heard this the other day.

How utterly selfish and stupid are some of these girls.

justhow small do they think the baby will be?
FFs they need to be given biology lessons and taught that its not the baby coming out of the vagina that hurts (although its rather stingy i must say) its the muscles and cervix contracting to push the baby out that causes the majority of the pain.

then again a younggirl who is already pregnant isnt realy the most sensible of mothers is she i guess.
And i WAS a teen mum

GoingQuietlyMad · 05/10/2006 14:19

sweetkitty, i agree with you that you should give up and yes i prob would judge. if one of my friends did it i would be mortified i guess.

i'm just trying to see the other side and understand why they do it. i feel the DOH are always over-reacting to things like this.

Blandmum · 05/10/2006 14:25

When I was pg with ds I ended up in hospital for the last two weeks with pre eclamsia. I have never smoked.

In the 4 bed unit I was in there was a girl of 19, pg with her first child. She was there because she didn't have enough amniotic fluid and her baby was very small for dates and wasn't growing as expected.

Every day, many times a day she would go out for a cigarette saying the following (and this a direct quote)

'Well I'm off to poison my baby'

I have never been so shocked and sickened.

GoingQuietlyMad · 05/10/2006 14:36

Martianbishop, that is truly shocking and sickening.

How can you make people like that care when they clearly don't?

Blandmum · 05/10/2006 14:41

ds is now a strapping 6 year old, but I still remember that girl and what she said, like it happened yesterday.

I am sure that part of it was bravado. But it showed that she knew exactly what she was doing, to the point that she was hospitalised because her baby wasn't growing!

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