Smoking and breastfeeding

[Mollie12]

Would you smoke and breastfeed? And what are your reasons?

Not at the same time no 😂.

I don’t smoke but if someone does and hasn’t been able to give up then I can see why they would want to still breastfeed.

Why do you ask?

Of course not, I’m not stupid.

No. It’s a fucking disgusting habit.

No, because I am not an idiot!

Are you worried about passing on nicotine or other substances via breastmilk? I’ve not heard of that as being an issue, but then all ressources aimed at pregnant and breastfeeding women are going to be very heavily antismoking because it’s dangerous for unborn babies and newborns (via secondhand smoke).

Anyone who smokes when they have a newborn, whether they breastfeed or not, either isn’t the brightest bulb in the box or is in the habit of letting short term pleasure dictate their lives.

If you're going to have a newborn baby and be a smoker, it's significantly better to breastfeed than formula feed.

But best of all would be to quit smoking.

A useful summary of possible concerns with research links at the bottom. Basically smoking and breastfeeding is bad but smoking and formula feeding is not better. kellymom.com/bf/can-i-breastfeed/lifestyle/smoking/

I did with both of mine. Not at the same time.

Why? Because I was addicted and had not yet managed to quit. I have now but it took me 20 years to be successful.

Smoking is a known risk factor for SIDS so no, I wouldn't smoke anywhere near my children regardless of how they were being fed.

I’m asking because my friend does and I have never really thought about it but I just assumed it can’t be good and my friend seems to think that breastfeeding will stop the ill effects to the baby?

Was just a question really…absolutely no judgement to anybody that does at all as it must be really difficult to quit xx

Sorry, but I will totally judge. It must be really difficult to quit, yes. But those women that don’t quit because it’s “too hard” in effect make their baby go through the hard work of quitting instead. Nicotine easily crosses the placenta. A woman makes her own choice to smoke, a baby doesn’t. But the baby is the one who suffers more if the woman can’t do the right thing and quit.

Did she smoke in her pregnancy?

Is she usually a bit thick?

I wonder how much a Venn diagram of people who smoke and people who breastfeed would intersect.
I've no idea and I guess it depends on the demographic, but my suspicion (based on no evidence) is that fewer smokers would choose to breastfeed.

To answer the OP: no, I wouldn't. One of the reasons being that I have a phobia (a real - verging on irrational - one) about smoking.

I wouldn’t smoke and parent at the same time, and I think it’s absolute OK to judge.

No she gave up during pregnancy but she said the first thing she thought about after labour was a cig so started again.

I have always felt guilty as I struggled breastfeeding my first and always felt inferior I suppose as she breastfed easily so just wondered really xx

Ideally, nobody should smoke when they're caring for a baby. However, if a mother does smoke, she should still be encouraged to breastfeed because research supports that breastfed babies of smokers probably do better than formula-fed babies of smokers.

Mollie12

I have always felt guilty as I struggled breastfeeding my first and always felt inferior I suppose as she breastfed easily so just wondered really xx

What's that got to do with whether she smokes or not?

I don’t smoke, so wouldn’t smoke and breastfeed.

But my understanding is that nicotine transfers into breast milk.

No because it's grim. Absolutely entirely grim.

I assume you stopped while pregnant? So why restart?

She, sorry, not you.

It's absolutely fine to judge people who smoke full stop and even more so people who allow their disgusting habit to harm their child.

roarfeckingroarr

I assume you stopped while pregnant? So why restart?

Oh!

I misunderstood. I thought the OP was a non-smoker

It will transfer to the baby via breastmilk.

It will also most likely kill her sooner, which is obviously not ideal when you have children.

God, really selfish! Some people just don’t deserve to be parents, they really don’t!

Go to the infertility boards and see women putting themselves through hell for years on end, doing all they can, cutting out every thing everything and having rounds and rounds of injections, surgeries and heartbreaks, with a marginal chance at motherhood despite all this.

And SOME cannot even be arsed to give up smoking so they don’t fuck up their kids lives. This fvcking world makes me despair.