Smoking while Pregnant

Originally Posted by Chibi Neko

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

What do you all think about this?

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.

Originally Posted by Chibi Neko

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?

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?

Jam it back in, in the dark.