Smoking while Pregnant
 

My teen cousin kinda inspired me to make this thread because she smoked though her entire pregnancy and I was not at all pleased, but it was her choice just the same.

We all know that smoking while pregnant increased the risk of health problems with the baby, and everytime I see a pregnant woman smoking, the little voice in my head says 'she should not be doing that'

Would you consider smoking while pregnant child abuse? Do you think it should be outlawed if the woman is carrying the child to term?

I often wonder why pregnant women who say "I want this baby and going to carry it to term" smoke and put their child's health a risk if they 'want' the baby so much.

What do you all think about this?

Why just smoking?

Why not outlaw everything that risks the health of a woman's baby? Caffiene, alcohol, aspirin, fast food, too much exercise, driving on a congested highway.

Also, what are you going to do with the lawbreaker, put her in jail? The added stress on the mother has got to be more harmful to the child than the smoking would be.

You know what? My mother smoked while she was pregnant with me because she was afraid of me being a big baby. I have no health problems to date. It's a chance that the mother can take, I wouldn't recommend it myself though.

Enforcing stuff like this is a tough area. People generally know what they are doing, if anything, preventive education may be needed, especially for teen pregnancies, but I think it's general knowledge anyway.

I infact met a girl in the city the other night and she said she was 6 months pregnant, then also mentioned she wanted a cigarette among complaining about the 13 degree weather while waiting for our bus. I forgot to question her smoking, but it somewhat alarmed me.

I questioned my cousin while she was having a smoke on her 7th month, and she told me that the doctor told her is it bad to stop smoking cold turkey and could harm her baby... is this true?

At the same time, the risks are much higher for things like alcohol (I'm not sure about cigarettes, but I can't imagine they're very good).

Really alcohol is one of those things that, if taken with any degree of regularity, will cause deformities and anomalies.

Punishment can be fines or even being charged with lesser crimes like willful endangerment, and doesn't have to mean jail time (at least until the baby is born).

My mother smoked while pregnant with me... It feels wrong to place any blame on her for any of my problems, but a lot of people who knew my mother before she had me try to...

One of my old girlfriends smoked when she thought she was pregnant... Sadly, she lost it... She wouldn't give me the details of the unborn child's demise, and I know there are a lot of factors that could lead to that.

It's a personal choice that I've discouraged amoung many of my friends. I think that's really all we can do. Personally, I think that something should be done if a woman wants a child as bad as she says she does, but how would one go about enforcing a law? What kind of penalties could be placed on a choice like that?

I thought there were repercussions for drinking/smoking/drug abuse while you're pregnant? Or is that for certain states? It's one thing to not know your pregnant and you're like oops, shouldn't have snorted that, but I thought that if you knew you were pregnant and continued to do drugs or abuse your body in any way, you get your baby taken away and you are charged.

As long as the mother is going to carry the baby to term, it makes no sense to me why they'd WANT to risk having a kid with problems. If they have an addiction, that's what those self-help groups are for :p

The precendence to not allow people to put anything they want in their body was set a long time ago.

I would definitely consider it child abuse. Smoking while pregnant can cause problems that can have a lasting effect on the child. As exaggerated as this might seem to some of you, it honestly seems as bad to me as forcing an infant to inhale smoke straight out of a cigarette. The thing is, though, that my definition of "child" is different from other people's. The unborn baby that I consider a child with rights might not be thought of as having rights until birth by other people and could be considered property of the mother who can do with it what she wants. The definition of "child" would be a huge hurdle to jump over to even begin to think about enforcing some sort of law prohibiting consumption of harmful substances while pregnant because it is child abuse. Does anyone know if it actually is illegal to consume things like drugs and alcohol while pregnant in some states or countries?

Passing a law sounds like a good idea, but I'm afraid of where it could go. For example, how would it be enforced? Would the mom have regular mouth swabs (or whatever it is they do) to make sure she isn't smoking? What would the punishment be for breaking the law? Would she be fined? Or put in an institution-like setting and monitored until she gives birth? And think about how far this could be taken. Poor nutrition can be highly detrimental to an unborn child's health (more than smoking in many ways from what I understand), so do we start locking up mothers who don't eat properly and force-feed them nutritious foods?

In a perfect world a law preventing pregnant women from smoking would work out great, but if this were a perfect world we wouldn't have women smoking while pregnant to begin with. The possibility of abuse of a law like this is too great for me to agree to it being passed. Lately, though, I've been hearing about parents being fined for smoking in cars with their children (or something along those lines), so maybe a law like the one we're discussing isn't too far off.

We discussed this in Nutrition a few weeks back and what it came down to is that the benefits of quitting for both the mother and baby outweigh the problems that might be experienced with withdrawal. Maybe the doctor is a little behind the times?

First of all, let me just say I'm a smoker. I've been a smoker for 8 years, and I started for retarded reasons. My opinions my be biased. It's a very hard habit to break, and I can sympathize with that difficulty. HOWEVER.

I always said that the latest point in life that I would absolutely, undoubtedly and unquestionably QUIT was when I got pregnant (if ever). I would never ever want to even run the risk of harming my parasitic fetus in such a way that could affect it's life outside of my womb and into the future. My PERSONAL decision would be to stop at any cost because it's not worth the risk. (And yea, it's only a RISK. There's not a 100% chance that your kid will be fucked if you smoke/drink whatever during pregnancy).

Now. That said.

NO ONE has the right to tell a person what they can and can not do with their own bodies. Yea, it sucks. Yea, it could be child abuse. But while the mother is carrying that baby, both life forms are compacted into ONE body who makes all the decisions.

You could not and SHOULD NOT outlaw a mother's right to smoke while she's carrying child. It's an out-right violation of personal freedom if you ask me. If a mother wants to smoke while she's with child, it's her loss - not mine. (Except for the small portion of my income that will take care of her kid's ailments, the stupid ass).

Like SS said - you can't outlaw these things. It's stupid. A person's right to chose is a person's right to chose - no matter HOW FUCKING RETARDED the choice may be.

Never understood why women would have a baby if they're not hellbent on taking care of it properly.

This girl I knew found out she was pregnant and cried her ass off and said she would drink herself to death just to get rid of the baby. While I don't support it, and told her how fucking stupid she was, I'm not going to prevent her from doing whatever she wants.

If women are old enough to get pregnant, then they're old enough to deal with the consequences of their decisions.

So if a 13 year old gets raped and becomes pregnant, that's her fault?

It's not illegal to smoke around a minor, either. I highly doubt you'd even be able to get a law like that passed--not to mention one that would put the unborn's rights on the same level as the mother's.

Incidentally, the only time the unborn counts legally as a separate entity from the mother is if they both get murdered. Then it's a double homicide.

No. It's called justification. She should have quit when she found she was pregnant, then the baby wouldn't have any withdrawl symptoms at all. And even withdrawl symptoms are still infinitely better than force-feeding the unborn carcinogens and nicotine. Continuing to smoke now just means she's still as selfish as she was 7 months ago.

This is what it comes down to: people are fucking selfish, and they put their personal needs over the needs of their kids. These people will do this while pregnant and will continue to do so as the kids grow up. Unless they do something blatantly abusive, nothing's going to happen. as far as government intervention is concerned. And ordinarily selfish parents are still probably better than the shit situations CPS would put the kids into anyway.

A 13 year old girl getting raped and becoming pregnant was not a decision made by her. It was made for her.

See, this is where we as a society should deal with shitheads without needing to get the law involved. You can't say "nigger" in front of a crowd at a comedy club without the whole country getting up your ass. Maybe we should all give women a hard time if we see them walking around pregnant and smoking.

There are enough laws as it is. If people were made to reap the consequences for their actions (for example, if they had to pay their own medical bills for children with health problems caused by their stupidity), people would start to think twice about doing a lot of the things they do now. As it is, they know that if their child turns out to have medical problems, all they have to do is run to the cheese line and get free health care for their retarded/underdeveloped kid because "Help me, I'm so poor! I can't afford health insurance!" Funny thing, though, they have no problem funding their $65 a month cigarette habit.

Can we get a libertarian smiley, plz?

I think smoking while pregnant is a bad choice, but to impose rules on it would take forever. Hopefully one day pregnant women who smoke will realise that the actual danagers of smoking while pregnant are high and they could be responsible first hand for any problems their child could face. I don't think any mother could live with themselves if they knew they had caused harm to their child through actions, which they could have stopped.
I'm really anti-smoking though and i'm looking forward to next year when over here it's becoming illegal to smoke in public places after july 2007 i think.

I don't smoke, and I really never see myself smoking, but even with that fact I would never want to see smoking banned in public places. The government continually taking away personal rights can't end in anything good.

Could have not said it better myself. True smoking and drinking is harmful to the child, but it is the woman's choice. If it where outlawed, then why not outlaw abortion? Ending the pregancey would get rid of the fetus altogether, and it is the woman's choice, it has nothing to do with me.

I love my cousin and I gave her advice against it, that is all I could do. The choice was hers, but that choice told me that she cared about her habit more then the well being of her child seeing that she was planning to keep it, so yeah... I consider that selfish.

The baby was born a little light, but is growing very well, so she was lucky.

That's great news! Now all she has to do is keep smoking around the child to ensure that it has a wide array of respiratory and developmental problems!

This stuff reminds me of the newspaper picture a few years ago of a pregnant woman who said she was concerned about the noise that some nearby construction equipment affecting her baby.

What made this picture funny was that she was smoking lol. I think they tried to explain their actions, but I'm sure a lot of people were thinking "Why are you worried about the noise affecting your baby when you're smoking?"

Where's that WRONG gif from Merv week when you need it. There's lots of evidence running around to disprove your statement, miss, you might want to rethink that.

Someone else's right to smoke shouldn't outweigh my right to be able to breathe. That's what they made outside for, so people can smoke. I'm all for people doing whatever they want to their own bodies, but when it starts infringing on my rights, we're not cool.

Although I don't agree with women smoking while pregnant, its not against the law to do so. I would want to have minimum risk when it comes to having a child. But, I guess I am a guy and I could never really understand what a woman has to go through.

I don't find smoking very appealing in the first place, so I would not have a wife who smokes.

I have heard of children who have developed problems due to smoking however, and probably due to a few other things as well.

Having to live your life with a socially damaging or health detrimental birth defect because your mom was "Ok" with taking a chance on her future child and puffing away is just plain fucking retarded no matter how I look at it.

As Squirrel said, theres plenty of other factors that involve child disabilities, but from the articles I've seen involving this sort of thing, smoking and alcaholism are the two most prominent, and really serve no responsible purpose. The benefits of exercising and coffee-drinking are obvious.

I recommend you watch Penn & Teller's BULLSHIT! on secondhand smoking. (It's mostly entertainment, but they're making a good point in the show - and it's overall a pretty good show.)

I hate to break it to you, but despite the fact that I am a smoker (and I admit, a little biased, here), this "secondhand" bullshit is really overblown. (Ask me to post some published articles if you're interested).

The only risk to your health from secondhand smoke is if you're exposed to prolonged cigarette smoke constantly. Something like a small child living in a house where one or more adults smoke on a regular basis. I can tell you THAT shit is true - I've seen the differences.

But truely, you can't really suffer any long-term affects from walking by a few smokers on the street or having a a conversation with a smoker over coffee. That's pretty much a myth.

I understand non-smokers don't like the SMELL at all, and the smoke my irritate them a little - but you know, I may happen to be allergic to some perfumes/colognes and have bad reactions to them! I may sincerely dislike the perfume/cologne you're wearing! I may think you made a VERY UNHEALTHY decision about weraring that particular scent!

But that does not give me the right to tell you what you should and should not do with your own body. You can't OUTLAW things just because you don't LIKE them.

Please explain why you can effectively have the police force your neighbours to stop making noise late at night if it's annoying you.

While I think P&T are generally cool, they were wrong about that and I would no recommend this episode.
http://skepdic.com/news/newsletter61.html#4
Furthermore: allegedly, P&T were asked about their evidence at the Amaz!ng Meeting 3 and that they'd make some corrections or notations. I haven't attended this meeting nor have I watched the DVDs, though, so I can't be sure.

She was dumb enough not to use birth control when having sex to begin with...so doesn't say much about her being stupid of what she wants to do to herself to get rid of the pregnancy; it's her own fault for not taking precautious measures.

Double Post:
I have a solution for you: move to California. We pay higher taxes, our highways are more congested than ever, our living expenses are twice as high as anywhere else in the country, and we pay higher gas prices -- but we DO outlaw smoking inside of any public places (bars, restaurants, office buildings, etc.)

She does live in California.

durrr.

ouch. Owned. Seriously though, my town has banned smoking in restaurants. Im not really for or against it really, but I think it does lighten the atmosphere a little.
As for smoking while pregnant (or even after, around a baby) has always been a nono for me.

I think I saw this clipping from Jay Leno's 'Headlines' segment. I have no pity on the woman's for being laughed at over it.

Smoking is associated with a low birth weight etc. Nicotine is also proven to be as addictive as heroin. But I still think that the least you should expect from a mother-to-be is an attempt to quit.
I'm a dental student and we are trained in smoking cessation counciling... we were told scary stories about women smoking specifically so that the baby would be small and easier to deliver.
Here in Ireland we have enforced a full smoking ban in all workplaces, including pubs and restaurants - it is brilliant and I can only hope that something similar is brought in everywhere. You can't infringe someone's right to clean air - it's just as valid as not infringing somebody's right to smoke.

Smoking in public places including bars, bingo halls, and restaurants is banned here in Newfoundland. The bar owners kicked up a fuss over it and tried to have it overturned. The government is standing firm on banning smoking where ever the public gather. Kudos.

Well, I meant to be cynically comical, but I do share your sentiments of "how stupid is the concept that smoke odor doesn't spread out to the 'non-smoking' side" and "why the fuck should my food taste and smell aweful because of your horribly stinky habitual craving."

...Ok, so I paraphrased it a little.

I think the laws that prohibit people from smoking in public places just generally encourage better smoking habits or to say the least, instills just a teensy bit more etiquette to smokers. At first it's forcing them to do it, but it just gradually becomes general/natural ettiquette once people get used to it.

If a pregnant woman smokes, fuck her. It's her fault. But on another note, my sister is a high school music teacher, and she believes we should pass a law stating that you need a LICENSE to become a parent. I couldn't agree with her more!

Arizona just had two ballot measures, one that outlawed smoking in nearly every place but bars and tobacco stores, one that allowed smoking in almost every private place including restaurants.

The first one passed overwhelmingly, the second one was shot down handily. When put to a vote, at least here in Arizona, smoking was voted to be hidden away from most of us, and I'm quite happy about that.

definetly. it's an obvious sign of stupidity on the part of the pregnant mother. and as obvious as all those pretty little signs are about how "Smoking kills unborn children" are on those packages, really, it's just a matter of common sense. but you really can't tell her how to raise her child. she's gonna have to find out the hard way if she's dumb enough to do that