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

[hunkermunker]

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"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.

I don't understand why I found it easier to fly a plane or steer a canal boat than drive a car. And why some people find it easier to drive a car, etc. etc.

Someone once said to me alcoholics and smokers are self-medicating depressives. Obviously that was a massive generalisation unsupported by detailed evidence, before anyone has a go. But suspect there's something in it.

Even if it isn't a contributing factor to cot death, smoking is bad for you, nobody can pretend they don't know that, so it is selfish to do it around children (infact around anyone who doesn't smoke) and unborn children as well.

Yup, and it's selfish to do lots of other things, including having children in the first place.

I'm sure there is no one who doesn't know smoking is bad for you, but maybe with pg/babies the information needs to be more detailed, so that people really understand why it's so bad.

My mother tried a number of times to give up smoking but what really gave her the impetus was when one of my ds's told her she smelled bad. That did the job. She gave it up overnight, despite have smoked for 40+yrs and hasn't smoked for 20yrs now. She also made my dad give up his pipe, which actually, I didn't mind the smell of.

Of us four children, only my sister ever smoked, though she went the whole hog with roll-ups. She gave up as well, a number of years ago.

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I share the unease about the idea of banning pregnant women from doing anything.

I drank too much when I was pregnant. It's taken me years to admit that, to be honest.

drinking while pregnant?

smoking while you are pregnant is very different from eating brie/pate/liver or not taking folic acid.

the above are "recommended" because they might harm your baby.

smoking does harm your baby. my mil smoked throughout all her pgs and when i gave up had a rant about how it hadnt harmed any of her kids.

all 5 (living) have weak chests, 3 were premature and 1 was stillborn. of course i feel for her, but i suspect that if she were pg in this day and age, knowing what we do now, things would be very different, and she would do things differently

MI, x post. wasnt aimed at you

MI, I think it does take a long time to admit one does less than ideal things when pg or with children. I'm still not at that point Well, unless you're on a competitive shit parent bleating thread on here that always spring up in response to anybody starting, well, a thread like this one, really. Usually food ones though - not sure there's anyone who wants to start an "I smoked 40 a day and I think I'm great for it" thread.

I quite like those competitive shit parent threads. I quite often win.

Just been thinking further about this - I had gestational diabetes when I was pregnant and had dire warnings throughout about the effect of eating food that spiked my blood sugar levels, both on myself and the baby.

Which I guess is kind of similar to smoking in pregnancy?

But smoking in pregnancy makes babies smaller and GD makes babies bigger, so I guess there's a very, very pressing need to control one's sugars with GD, for fanjo intactus reasons...!

But my attitude to it was different from a smoker - even though I had to curb my Mars bar habit. I wonder why? (That's a serious point - I'm not being flippant - I do wonder why!)

Hunker - do you really think they are the same thing? I mean, however sweet your tooth (and mine is VERY sweet), nicotine addiction is much harder to control. Or have I missed your point?

Not just sweets - I couldn't eat white rice, white or granary bread, anything even slightly white-floury. I got very low about it when I was trying to work out what was spiking my sugar levels, because it seemed that every meal I wanted to eat, there was something I couldn't have.

So it's not as simple as "don't eat Mars bars" - so yes, I think it's in some way comparable to nicotine addiction, because I had to change a LOT about my diet. I lost a stone and a half in six weeks, between 28 and 34 weeks pregnant. And I was in size 10 maternity trousers to start with.

this page from the Royal College of Physicians says that nicotine addiction is comparable to heroin and cocaine addiction. Is this not something that is widely understood?

x-posts. I can quite see that that must have been very difficult - I struggle to control my starch urges myself, and I'm sure I would find it difficult to give up all of those things at once. But I still don't think it's quite the same, in terms of addiction pathways in the brain.

hmmm. to be honest, I wouldn't really trust the independent to summarise the study properly - those figures sound wrong for a start (9 out of 10 mothers who had cot deaths smoked, yet smoking only makes one 4 times as likely to have a baby who dies of sids. since more mothers to be are non smokers than smokers, surely the extra risk is more like 20 times?)

but no, banning people (even certain types of people) from smoking ever would be wrong, and as far as I know, unprecedented in modern times.

Not in all cases, PW - I gave up easily (which annoys people, I realise). I'm addicted to food though - it keeps me alive.

In the interests of full disclosure - I smoked for some of my first pregnancy and about five weeks of my second, my mother (a long-term smoker) is dying of lung cancer (she gave up instantly on diagnosis), and my brother suffers from repeated psychotic episodes largely due to his abuse of alcohol and drugs - so I suppose you might say that I'd go some distance to find reasons why we all seem to find it so hard to stop doing the things that we know we shouldn't be doing.

i smoked during my last pregnancy. especially towards the end. i tried to give up. call me selfish, stupid, etc etc, i just dont care anymore.

but lots of people who do, say, the atkins diet get withdrawal symptoms from bread. and i do mean cold sweats, shivers, paranoia etc

that must be an absolute killer i think, having an addiction to food and it being completely up to you to solve it. imagine being a heroin addict and being told 'you must have a teeny amount every day to keep you alive.'

and i wondered if it was sarcasm, kittywitch. it doesn't translate well on the internet, i don't think. you need A Tone. internet's a bit wysiwyg for all that.

I am interested in the fact that people think banning smoking is wrong, why? (I am talking about a full ban btw not just pregnant women btw).

i don't think it's wrong, COV, just Never Going To Happen. too much money in it.

I agree it will never happen, I just don't get the attitude that you are depriving people of their rights.