Should pregnant women be banned from smoking in light of new research?

[hunkermunker]

See here

"Nine out of 10 mothers whose babies suffered cot death smoked during pregnancy, according to a scientific study to be published this week. The study, thought to be one of the most authoritative to date on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), says women who smoke during pregnancy are four times more likely than non-smokers to see their child fall victim to cot death."

Personally, I find it very, very hard to understand why anybody smokes while knowingly pregnant. And yes, I know it's addictive. I speak as an ex-smoker, not somebody who has no idea what it's like to have a love affair with the evil weed.

hunker I doubt very much that custy was being serious...more like using it as a comparison

Argh, I knew someone would pick me up on that. I was eating cake as I posted... [distracted]

And I was going to start a Useful Thread and got sidetracked with this bullshit

!!

2shoes, maybe, but when you only have the written word to go on, it can come across as arsey.

Hence my liberal use of emoticons

Sorry SaintJude, but no benefits to smoking?

Ask the mums stood outside the hospital doors whether there is any benefit to smoking?

You may not agree with their thoughts and neither would I but they will certainly argue the point with you, plus, argue that it is their right to do so.

As I said smoking is very emotive, the do's and dont's will argue the point vociferously.

Sadly smoking is a fact of life today and will probably continue to be so for some years hence.

Only the mother can make the decision to stop smoking and she will choose to do so when she feels it is right for her. Not for baby, family, me, you, society etc., indeed she may never stop.

There is a lot of information, help, support available, but it is only there when someone chooses to ask for it, it cannot be thrust upon them.

Women choose to refuse blood tests in pregnancy, that is their right, refuse vaginal examinations, that is their right. If problems occur because of their refusal, do they receive the same condemnation as a smoker? No, they made a conscious decision to refuse treatment/advice etc.

Smoking is not good for anyone, but please, do not portray smokers as bad people, they have rights too, and pay quite heavily for the 'sin' of smoking.

If all in life were perfect, wouldn't it be boring? where would we go for a darn good stimulating arguement.

People who joke about smoking should mind they dont get their fingers burned

boom-boom

Hunker. Point me in the direction of your interesting thread.

Also - dont eat too much cake - you have a dress to squeeze into remember

OFFS, NOW this is getting stupid.
Benefits to smoking???? are you that determined to argue for smoking in pregnancy that you're going to talk such rubbish???

Smoking is BAD during pregnancy and any other time of your life, we all know this, why cant everyone get off their high horses and admit it!

'Tis very tempting to say something about the health risks of eating too much cake ..

Don't worry, SJ, I'm sylph-like after several fruit-only days at work In fact, I wonder if the dress might fall off me? [twig]

Haven't started thread yet. Wondering where is best.

Sorry NNT - problems dont "occur" due to blood tests being refused. Conditions/risks of certain conditions are simply not diagnosed. Not having tests to determine the "risk" of downs syndrome, for example, will not prevent it and I think it is somewhat disingenuous to suggest that this is the case.

I'm afraid I fail to see any benefits to smoking. If you can spell them out clearly for me I'd be really interested to read it though.

switch on MSN and I may be able to advise you [stern look]

TED, if you would like to make a comparison between one piece of cake and smoking in pregnancy, be my guest [size 10 bottom]

ummm

"Not having tests to determine the "risk" of downs syndrome, for example, will not prevent it "

should actually read

"not having tests to determine the "risk of Downs Syndrome, for example, will not cause it to occur, and having said tests will not prevent it either"

Are you comparing cake to formula????

Because if smoking is like ff......

burn her burn her!

Message withdrawn

'Women choose to refuse blood tests in pregnancy, that is their right, refuse vaginal examinations, that is their right. If problems occur because of their refusal'

There IS no treatment for the disabilities a test might identify a risk of. I've refused tests for this one because A) DS3 was high risk and as we didnt want to riak an amnio, we just spent the last half of our last PG worrying; and B) we have child / children with ASD which can't be picked up.... would we have considered a termination for our beautiful boys if that ahd been detectable? NOt at all.

Smoking is entirely different- its a decision to expose the baby to additional risk factors by introducing a chemical into your body, not some random genetic lottery.

Ther are benefits to smoking though- cant remember the research but remember years and yars ago a Lecturer drawing our attention tor esearch that indicated smoking single mothers were measurably less stressed than non smokers (cant remember if this was Psychology or Sociology class, took them both as a mature student)- still wouldnt smoke but two sides to every coin and all that.

That is interesting.

Is it not also true that smoking CAUSES the smoker to be stressed, and then having a cigarette apparently destresses them, therefore smokers feel like having one when they get angry??
I have no idea where I got that from, school I think.

There are certainly no benefits to smoking per se. I assume your argument is that there benefits to not giving up once addicted?

Interesting statistics on this thread. I did see smoking in pregnancy decribed as a 'big risk'. Surely actually only a very small risk, in terms of SIDS? It may be that 9 out of 10 babies who die of SIDS had mothers who smoked in preganancy, but the proportion of babies whose mothers smoked in pregnancy who died of SIDS would be another statistic you would need to get an idea of actual risk surely?

Not advocating smoking in pregnancy at all BTW.

Oooh - this moved on while I was writing that...

so hunker thinks i am arsey - rather than spurious - "custy might call me arsey" comment. nice ...oh and thanks..again.

in blazingsandles stylee... st jude unless consider yourself a minion - the comment wasn't directed at you.

i thought my original list was a comedic turn on the head.

and later ...like about 3 or 4 posts later...i explained it in answer to another posters comments .

its not a parp topic for me - i didn't smoke in pregnancy, i think its wrong to do so and i wouldnt defend doing so. What i did want people to think about is that to make it enforceable in any way, more laws and more police, judiciary, alduous huxley esq state arises and where does it stop - this thing - this machine "for your own good" and some people got it - some didn't - but i explained later never the less. no need to be called names by aitch

FWIW, I think the actual benefits from smoking are actually benefits from nicotine, rather than the whole cigarette.

the benefits of smoking

pmsl " it gives pleasure" and " you can get laid more easily!"