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.

Hunker, sympathy re. gestational diabetes - my sister developed it (missed by her shit obstetrician and and equally useless midwife, picked up thankfully by bright student midwife). Her blood sugar levels were all over the place even with all the diet adjustments. Bloody miserable time. So I do appreciate how horrible and difficult it is. Thankfully my niece was fine (and nowhere near the 11bs the midwives/obs had claimed - 7lb 7oz IIRC).

so lissie - do you think mothers have a moral obligation to breastfeed, even when they don't want to? because they should recognise they are not the most important person anymore? or perhaps mothers who want to return to work, shouldn't, because their baby's rights are more important?

you can't control how other people live their lives and raise their children. there are lots of contributing factors to SIDS, not just smoking.

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in my eyes, when i was pg with ds (and each subsequent pg) i would have given my life to save my unborn childs. that makes him/her more important to me

Yes, the harm is the same, but it is not deliberate.

no of course not. i ff ds. but ff and smoking is v different. no-one ever died of being bottle-fed

yes lulumama - some people bottle feed because they don't get the help to breastfeed. some women smoke when pregnat because they don't get the help to stop.

however, some women bottlefeed because they want to and some women smoke because they want to.

A woman has a moral obligation to do the best she can for her child, unborn or born. Be it stopping to smoke, or feed it in the best way she can, bottles or breast. For surely, a woman who cannot breastfeed for whatever reason, should not let her baby starve and die?

so in my opinion, money should be spent educating and supoprting women to make and carry out the best choices for themselves and their babies, rather than spent on prosecuting them

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beautifuldays, can you please explain why you are so keen to turn this into a bottle vs breastfeeding debate? In my opinion these two cannot be juxtaposed.

Yes it's very difficult to understand why women smoke while pregant.

But banning them doing so, when other human beings are allowed to, would reduce their status as full human beings, equal to non-pregnant women and men. Seeing as how our status as full humans has always been so precarious anyhow, I'd be against anything which attacked it further.

I would only be for it if every single other person within a twenty mile radius was forced to stop as well. And you were not allowed to rev up a car near a pregnant woman.

but lissie, it's not so different. you must have known breastfeeding was best - women know not smoking is best. doesn't mean we all choose to follow the guidelines.

and formauls fed babies are more likely to die of SIDS, although i'm sure smoking results in a higher risk factor, bottlefeeding is still a risk factor too. show me a baby who died solely because their mother smoked when she was pregnant

with the harms of smoking to an unborn child.

got carried away here

good point pruners, but you get my point. i was talking nutritionally.

beautifuldays, of course i did, but was unable to. with the proper help i probably would have bf successfully. just like women who are pg, smoke and want to give up can. with the proper support

but scaryscary - it is not a question of "letting the baby starve". most of the babies in this country are bottlefed, yet all but a very few women have the ability to breastfeed if they wanted to/got enough help and support to do so.

in the same way, most pregnat women could stop smoking if they wanted to /got the support to do so.

doesn't mean we should tell them what to do, or pass judgement on their choices.

I really can't see the equation between smoking while pregnant and bottlefeeding.

As Scary says if for some reason you couldn't breastfeed you would have to provide milk for your baby some how. Formula might not be the best way but it doesn't damage your baby.

Smoking while pregnant damages the unborn child in more ways than increasing the risk of cotdeath.

Not for a ban either, but more public education.

can we stop talking about breast v bottle now? this thread isnt about that

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beautifuldays, why dont you start a new thread about breast and bottlefeeding instead?

i'm not trying to turn it into a bottle/breast debate, and i don't care less how you fed your babies. just like i don't care if you smoked when you were pregnant.

i'm just trying to point out that there are other decisions mothers make, which may not be to the best advantage to their babies health. pregnant women/mothers are free to follow guidelines or not. be that with regards to smoking, bottle feeding, eating junk food, drinking alcohol. whatever.

nothing gives you the right to tell a pregnant women what she can and can't do. it is her body and her baby. i'm sure you wouldn't like it much if people criticised your parenting. because none of us are perfect mothers.

sorry that came out a bit antagonistic. i'm sorry if i got carried away with the bottle/breast thing. i was just trying to point out that there are guidelines about lots of things to do with parenting, but we are free to choose whether we follow them or not.

agreed, but formula wont poison your baby. smoking will.

sorry lissie, i was going to let this drop, but plenty of babies die of being bottlefed.

refer to my earlier retraction please. i am awareof the issue in developing countries, dirty water etc. they do not die because of the formula, rather because of the way it is made.