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They know its bad for the baby, so why are they harming their child?
Do you think it shows how they'll be as a parent?
My ex-best friend smoked during her entire pregnancy. Her reason? "Oh everything is so stressful. My husband is being mean to me and I'm just so stressed! Now is not the time to quit smoking with all this stress!" She said her doctor told her it was okay to smoke while pregnant. Really?! How was this doctor allowed to graduate from medical school?!
Fast forward two years later and she abandon her son and took off to Mississippi and now works for a circus and lived with a man who beats her. Even before she left, she was always mean to her baby. If he cried while she was trying to eat, she yelled at him.
LOL, I don't think there's some kind of correlation between this woman smoking and being a bad mother. Your friend is just a bad mother.
Women smoke when they are pregnant because--get this--they are addicted to nicotine, the same as they were before they got pregnant. Yes, everyone knows that smoking is not good for the baby. Most smokers' babies are just fine, although low birthweight is more common. Remember, many kids born during the 40's, 50's and 60's, before all the surgeon general warnings and whatnot, were born to smoking mothers.
Quitting smoking is not just as simple as stopping lighting up one fine day. Your body goes through changes from withdrawal, and you often go into a terrible depression. That's not a great thing to put a fetus through, either.
When my sister had my niece thirty-three years ago, the doctor told her she should try to cut down and that she should have no more than three alcoholic drinks per day. See how things change? And when my niece was born, my sister could smoke in her hospital room.
My daughter is nineteen. I cut down on smoking when I was pregnant, but I was not able to quit completely (and by then there was no smoking in hospitals anymore, lol.) She is fine and healthy and just finished her second year of college, where she got As in Chinese and Russian. She does not drink or smoke. I wish I didn't smoke when I was pregnant, because I felt guilty every time I lit up. Plus, if you are pregnant and smoking, it's hard to do because you have to hide it so that nosy strangers don't walk up and lecture you. That helps one cut down!
The RISKS are higher, but the odds are still that the baby will be healthy.
Yeah there were a whole lot of people born healthy, to women who smoked AND drank, long before the medical community realized it probably wasn't a good idea. It didn't suddenly become risky when they declared it. It was always risky. It's a numbers game. I don't know what the real numbers are, but here's the general idea:
Something increases the risk of a disease by 300%..
but if that risk *before* the something was 1:5,000,000 (one in five million), then the 300% increase means - 3:5,000,000 (3 in 5 million) - less than a 1% risk in total. It's still not much of a risk.
If the risk was originally 1:10 (one in ten) and it's a 300% increased risk, then it's a 3:10 risk now - a 30% risk.
The "increased risk" is the risk over and above the original risk. If the original risk is marginal, then even 100% - double the risk - is still going to be marginal.
I am a smoker and September last year gave birth to a very happy 8 pound 6ounce baby boy. I tried so hard to quit smoking (INCREDIBLY HARD) And I just couldn't :-( I felt so guilty every time but the addiction is just to much for me, even now I am trying so hard and wish I could stop, I have tried cold turkey and patches.
But I also had a doctor say that if quitting was TOO stressful then to just cut down as much as possible. Which I did.
I am a smoker and September last year gave birth to a very happy 8 pound 6ounce baby boy. I tried so hard to quit smoking (INCREDIBLY HARD) And I just couldn't :-( I felt so guilty every time but the addiction is just to much for me, even now I am trying so hard and wish I could stop, I have tried cold turkey and patches.
But I also had a doctor say that if quitting was TOO stressful then to just cut down as much as possible. Which I did.
No joke... Though not related to smoking while pregnant, my dad who smoked for 50 years went on Chantix and quit in a week. Said he couldn't stand the smell or taste anymore. He's been smoke free for four years now.
I think it alters brain chemistry so I'm not sure pregnant women can take it.... Not sure though....
Smoking while pregnant in my view equal bad mother...
It has been proven that smoking while pregnant can cause and is linked to ADHD...
Now that doesn't mean they will continue to be bad mothers after birth but just maybe bad mothers while pregnant.
Also if they still smoke around the baby and kids then maybe they are still bad mothers, have you seen the recents studies about second smoke problems on childrens?
I hope no one reading this decides to keep smoking while pregnant.
Take it as you wish.
Smoking while pregnant is not a big deal and it is a shame that the women of today are vilified for it.
In the 50's and 60's a lot of women smoked while pregnant.......and every other child was not born with allergies, asthma, autism and underweight as they are today.
BTW....I am responing to your original post.....before you completely changed it.
the best way to avoid the problem is to never smoke at all.
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