Smoking in pregnancy???

[Babyblues14]

just wanted to know how easy people found it to quit smoking once they found out they were pregnant. Did you manage to stop instantly or did you have to cut down???
I have been smoking for ten years and get terrible mood swings when I dont have any. People dont believe how bad they are until they actually see it. I have known I am pregnant for about a month and have managed to cut down massively. from 20 a day to 5. But family and dh are still having a go at me, I do want to stop completely but im finding it difficult. How was your experience with this?

If you don't give up, you are basically expecting your newborn baby to deal with the negative consequences and the side effects of nicotine withdrawal, instead of carrying that burden yourself.

Amongst other dangers, this is absolutely spot on ^

At the end of the day, quitting is possible for everyone. It's just hard. It's not an uncontrollable impulse when you lift the lit cigarette to your lips. You could not light it instead. That's a choice you are making every time you smoke. If someone offered you a million pounds to not smoke the next cigarette, I'm betting everyone could do it. And the next one, and the next one. It boils down to whether or not you place such the same value on the health of your baby.

I work with young mums and it's a running joke with the workers, "that mythical HCP who tells all the girls to carry on smoking because quitting is 'stressful'". Utter bullshit.

If you choose to smoke, that's your choice. But everyone needs to stop pretending that smoking during pregnancy is anything other than harmful to the baby.

I understand all of the benefits of quitting smoking and the dangers of continuing to smoke through pregnancy. my sister smoked her usual twenty a day through all four of her pregnancies. didnt even attempt to quit, she said there was no proof that they do any harm which is a ridiculous excuse to me. im desperate to quit just struggling a bit

I think morning sickness helped. I bloody loved smoking until I got pregnant. Had to change habits e.g. get to bus stop just on time so no time for a fag, after dinner phone someone straight away where you would usually be having a fag, brushing teeth all the flipping time and chewing gum helped. . You just have to get through the first day or two, just say to yourself I won't have the next fag and see how you go.Getting down to 5 from 20 suggests to me that you will be able to do this.

To all those saying think of the baby, for some people it is impossible to visualise a 2 month pregnancy as a baby who could be hurt by your actions. A friend of mine didn't stop til she had a bump and then cried and cried at all the damage she had done, she just hadn't connected it.

One more tip - tell everyone once you are 12 weeks, including local shopkeepers....public shame can be a good motivator.

BabyBlues I think you just have to visualise exactly what is happening to your baby when you smoke each cigarette. Do a bit of googling. Because each and every one distresses your baby. So focus on that. Every time you put the cigarette to your lips, ask yourself if you really want it badly enough to hurt your baby right now, this second. That would be my advice.

Oh I know, Baby. You know the risks. It's other people minimising. FWIW, here is my method.

One jar with fag butts and an inch of water in it.
One jar which you put the money you spend on cigarettes in.

When you get a craving, look at the money jar. If you still feel the craving, shake the butts jar, open and take a big sniff. You won't feel like a cigarette.

BabyBlues, I'm hugely sympathetic - it IS hard. For me, personally, the point made by Crunchyside above is very powerful: every time you postpone your own withdrawal by having a cigarette, you are in effect passing that ordeal onto your baby. I know that's guilt-trippy, but it would be what would motivate me.

If you're struggling now, imagine how your baby will feel in the first fewdays of their life...