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Smoking in pregnancy

197 replies

GeraldineMumsnet · 16/01/2009 15:44

Please can you do our super-quick survey - one question! thank you

OP posts:
IAteMakkaPakka · 17/01/2009 11:26

sg there's a study (I think from the Uni of California, will try to find it) which shows a decrease in child's lung function correlating with maternal smoking.

edam · 17/01/2009 11:28

I'm not sure people 'choose' to smoke. Certainly wish I'd never started. Have given up several times but keep lapsing. If only one could have the odd cigarette without wanting more...

FAQtothefuture · 17/01/2009 11:30

yes but as you don't know whether that pg woman you see smoking in the street falls into the first catergory or the 2nd one. You don't know whether they're smoking 30 a day in full knowledge of the potential risks to their baby, or whether that's the only one they've had/going to have for they're entire pg and something has happened which has meant that the only reaction they had was to reach for a fag

IAteMakkaPakka · 17/01/2009 11:30

For sg
Californian study

more recent review article

FAQtothefuture · 17/01/2009 11:31

"If only one could have the odd cigarette without wanting more... "

exH does that - he buys really nice cigarettes, a pack of 10, and it can last him weeks and weeks and weeks!

HeinzSight · 17/01/2009 11:31

done

IAteMakkaPakka · 17/01/2009 11:31

I understand that point FAQ, but we're talking about society here, not me going up to them and telling them where they're going wrong!

edam · 17/01/2009 11:32

Swine! I once gave up for a whole year with Alan Carr - actually going to see him in person. He reckoned even people who smoke very occasionally are still suffering from an addiction. Told us he'd treated one woman who only had one cigarette a week but decided to seek help when she discovered she'd run out coming back from a night out at 2am, got in the car and drove for MILES looking for an all-night garage.

IAteMakkaPakka · 17/01/2009 11:33

OK, so we've established that my view that it's wrong is unhelpful. What should we do? Because there's a risk that accepting these things makes them "acceptable", surely? So how should society behave? Is it wrong that efforts are made to raise awareness of risks? Or should we stop those efforts in order to avoid offending those who don't need the information? What's the answer?

FAQtothefuture · 17/01/2009 11:35

I really don't think he is addicted, he can (and has) gone for months without one, then had one "socially", and then not smoked/have the urge to buy anymore/have one for ages

I on the other hand panic if my baccy is getting low and the DS's are in bed so I can't get down the shop

edam · 17/01/2009 11:36

You are entitled to believe it is wrong, or anything else you believe that stops short of breaking the law.

foxinsocks · 17/01/2009 11:38

poor makkapakka

one good thing about my mum being a chain smoker (60 a day type - she smoked in the car, train, we had to sit in smoking on planes (can you believe they used to allow people to smoke on planes!), I think I must have smoked virtually every cigarette with her) was that I had chronic bronchitis for decades and only managed to get rid of it when I had lived out of the house for around 5 years (I was about 20). I have never wanted to touch a cig because of that and neither have any of my siblings!

I think all this focus on 'doing the right thing when pregnant' will drive people mad (especially the food advice etc.).

FAQtothefuture · 17/01/2009 11:39

you don't have to think it's "right", nothing wrong with thinking (and indeed knowing that it's wrong) but condemning pg smokers tends to send them off straight to have another one ime.

I did manage to cut down (quite dramatically) when pg with DS3, but I think if my friends had been telling me all the reasons (which I already beat myself up about as I knew them too) why I shouldn't be smoking at all I wouldn't have managed to cut down so successfully.

foxinsocks · 17/01/2009 11:40

but do think that anyone with an addiction be it cigarettes, alcohol, drugs should have access to help if they want it whether they are pregnant or not

but if they don't want it, nowt you can do I reckon

foxinsocks · 17/01/2009 11:42

(having said that, I did try to smoke once but couldn't understand what the fuss was all about!)

FAQtothefuture · 17/01/2009 11:43

agree that the help could be better.

Start of DS3's pg conversation with MW (who was otherwise very helpful and lovely - and I guess she did all that she could do)

"do you smoke"

me: "yes"

"do you want to quit/cut down"

me: "yes"

"well here's the number to ring to get help with that"

ermm right that really helped me a lot, I'm a phone phobic, I was under a lot of stress at work and in my marriage and the very last thing I felt like doing was ringing up. I did eventually only to discover the "help" meetings were on a day and time that there was no way in hell I could manage, and on the rare occasions I was free at that time it would have involved dragging a toddler and my large pg self all the way across town to attend

VictorianSqualor · 17/01/2009 11:45

I don't think anyone needs 'condemning' as such.
But smoking in pregnancy should not be deemed 'acceptable' by any stretch of the imagination.

When pg with DD I was a smoker, I cut down dramatically to the point that I'd have three or four cigarettes a week. I wasn't 'condemned' but nobody cared. No-one gave a fig that I was possibly endangering my baby. They may not have been encouraging me to smoke, but there was certainly no discouragement.

When the DSs were born, I didn't smoke with either of them. Partly due to the larger amount of information available, and partly because it was less socially acceptable.

Smoking being seen as something quite awful that could damage a baby compared to the whole 'turn a blind eye' crap that is spouted all too often is necessary to reduce numbers. Just as with drink-driving, it needs to be socially unacceptable, which in turn, I suppose is a form of condemnation.

We can't go about tip-toeing around subjects for fear of offending people. Smoking has dangers, putting your baby at risk of these avoidable dangers should never be accepted.

As for the misogynistic viewpoint, just because something fits in with a misogynistic viewpoint doesn't make it automatically wrong.

IAteMakkaPakka · 17/01/2009 11:47

I have a sneaking feeling some people now assume that should one of my friends smoke during pregnancy I will be bashing on their door with a bunch of leaflets under one arm and a box of Nicorette under the other . In fairness, in that sort of situation I wouldn't even mention it to them unless I thought they weren't informed of the risks. I might not think it's right but then that's true of all sorts of things people do, in all sorts of relationships.

I thought the condemnation we're talking about is a more general society thing, not a few self-righteous types launching themselves at pregnant smokers in the street.

FAQtothefuture · 17/01/2009 11:48

Nicorettes are crap anyhow (well the gum is) so I wouldn't waste your money - I tried them when I wanted to quit a year or so back..........I'd have the gum........then have a fag afterwards .

lol @ bashing on door with leaflets and nicorettes though

treedelivery · 17/01/2009 12:00

Done

I agree with VictorianSqualor.
I am also not convinced people do know all the risks. I think 'it's bad for you' is a phrase, like 'breast is best'. What does that actually mean?

Have had many people, and you would be amazed by how many, say 'well small babies are easier to push out anyway' and also lots of 'I wouldn't like a big baby anyway' so they have no knowledge of what made the baby small and how this impacts on their coping with labour and life outside the uterus. I don't think many people know it increases the chancces of a sudden infant death eiher [even if only one parent smokes] although this is an increase from a tiny amount of risk to a less tiny amount of risk.

Is society that well informed or does it like to think it is.

edam · 17/01/2009 12:55

at MakkaPakka. If you ever DO feel the urge to knock on doors and tell people about salvation, you could always convert to Jehovah's Witnessdom.

IAteMakkaPakka · 17/01/2009 13:40
Hmm
edam · 17/01/2009 13:47

I was trying to be friendly!

IAteMakkaPakka · 17/01/2009 14:04

Sorry. I'm possibly still stinging from being branded smug and officious earlier. I shall work on it

PinkTulips · 17/01/2009 14:51

found the question impossible to answer tbh.

i've cut down drastically with all 3 pregs (down to a fag every few days, or even once a week) but have never been able to completely 100% quit.

personally i think 'support and advice on how to quit' is a load of bollocks, i know the risks, i feel shit enough about it and self rightous help and patronising support would upset me just as much as condemnation.

i'm not stupid... i can read and i know the risks and dangers of smoking, pregnant or not.

i also know the risks of plenty of other things that are dangerous in preg but aren't made tabboo by society.... drink for instance, i don't know a single person who went through pregnancy and didn't drink occasionally or even regularly..... but that's not villified by society... in fact, it's positively encouraged by many despite there being numerous studies on the dangers.