Low Birth weight and PILs smoking

[Whatsitcalled38]

We visit PILs quite alot, twice a week. They both smoke in the house very heavily.

Just been for our 20 week scan and baby is on the 5th percentile.

There's no way those things aren't connected is there?

The two are probably not connected, but now you are more aware of the risks of passive smoking, you can change this.

You mention a child? They will be arguably more vulnerable to passive smoking than your unborn baby.

I personally wouldn’t visit the house with children and while pregnant. Yes, healthy babies and children survived despite mothers smoking while pregnant, and living in households with smokers. But we know better now, and know it can cause health issues.

If they are truly welcoming, they would be willing to meet somewhere neutral and smoke free - and abide by NHS guidelines for being around pregnant women, children, and babies. And that does not mean coming to your house, even if they change into clean clothing, that clean clothing will still smell of smoke as it has come from their environment.

Perhaps this could be the wake up call they need to stop smoking?

The residue will take years to clean from their home, without a thorough cleaning etc, even if they do stop.

Do you have a pregnancy pillow to help you sleep on your side? I got a cheap one from eBay and used it even after giving birth. It was so comfy.

I would of thought it's unlikely to be connected but what are you planning to do once baby is here? My mum was a smoker when my first daughter was born, even though she only smoked outside and would wash her hands before holding DD, the babies blanket or whatever she had round her would always smell smoky afterwards and I found it really off-putting. Passive smoking for babies/children is awful and something I'd try to avoid

"I sometimes wonder how my generation even exists at all. It was very unusual NOT to smoke in the 50s and 60s. I was the only one of my friends who didn't. My dad only smoked very occasionally, and used to get teased for not doing.

Yet here all we boomers and those born in the 1960s are.
The kind of fear that's promoted nowadays, if reasonable, would have lef to the loss of an entire generation."

@saraclara It's just that babies are a lot healthier and safer now. The average height has been increasing, infant mortality significantly reducing, lots and lots of little improvements at a population level as a result of things like advice not to smoke and drink during pregnancy and in newborn stage, better health care, better sleep advice.

It's easy for people to cite everyone they know smoked 20 a day and lived to 100 or drank through their pregnancies and their kids are fine. This is all irrelevant and statistical data over time shows that the changes in behaviour and healthcare have improved outcomes, even if the in-my-day crew gleefully dismiss people's health concerns because they did not themselves worry about it and "everything turned out ok".

@ironorchids I understand all that, and I'm not for a minute condoning smoking in pregnancy or around babies.

But the level of fear that's been inculcated is damaging in itself, to the mothers' mental health. Being around someone who smokes for an hour or so a week, while not ideal, is not going to lead to some terrible outcome for the baby. Yet thousands of women live in this kind of fear.

Information is good, living as well as you can while pregnant, is good. I'm a rule follower in general so I'm not telling anyone to ignore guidance.
But risk percption has gone out of the window, and women are terrified beyond reason. And understandably because the healthy pregnancy message is put across without nuance.

Women spend months worrying about that unpasteurised piece of cheese they ate. Those drinks they had before they knew they were pregnant. They make grandparents change clothes and shower after they've smoked outside because they think that a minute of being held is going to cause some kind of physical trauma.

I really worry about the stress and anxiety that my daughters' generation have to try to manage. It's out of proportion to the risk.

This.
Invisible car fumes swirling around everyone, everywhere ( especially in an urban environment) are many times more harmful. However, they are invisible, don't really smell and most people need a car so ignore the impact on the air we all breathe.
Just meet them outside their home, problem solved ....but don't sit outside a cafe by a main road with sluggish traffic.