Smoking while pregnant anyone?

Phatmouse

iwanttosave wrote:

I was the same, with my second pregancy I gave up, then because of stress ect, I misscarried, same with the third. I started again after my last miscarrage and then found out I was pregant again (I seem to be very fertile lol)

When I found out I was pregnant and we told OH sister who we were renting off, she put the house on the market because she assumed we couldnt afford the rent, had a lot of upset from her and I was highly strung all day, my midwife said that because the smoking calmed me down that I should continue. I have never been a big smoker, I have about 4 a day. During that pregnancy, I was made homeless, found out my nana was terminal who I had to care for, then she died, I had to move in with my mother (stressful at the best of times)

I went on to give birth to a 8lb 2oz boy induced 2 weeks early (I dread how big he would be if I went to term) because of extreme sciatica. He has no lung troubles or any other health problems what so ever.

I'm so pleased to hear eveything ended up alright, what a time you had :eek:

I think if I had to move back in with my mam I would on somethings stronger than ciggies!!

ailuro2

I smoked through pregnancy and finally managed to give up just after dd's 1st birthday. I knew if I didn't do it then that I never wouldn and my precious little girl would be at increased risk of becoming a smoker when she was older.:eek:

Only after I stopped did I realise the impact it had on my fitness levels, especially how much extra breath I had available during exercise,yet when I smoked I hadn't realised.
I do sometimes wonder if I hadn't smoked would I have been fitter for the birth and not ended up over-tired and needing forceps to 'help' since it was borderline- I dunno

I do recommend ignoring your friend and doing what's best for you- I bet it's nice to be able to buy nice stuff for the baby when previously your money might be spent on ciggies.

Well done for stopping, I do hope you manage to stay stopped.

bella4uk

I wish they would ban smoking completely...I'm ashamed to say that I smoked throughout my pregnancies, try as I might I could not give up and I felt dreadful about it, although I managed to cut down but not nearly enough.
I started smoking at the age if 14 and was hooked within weeks, I used to spend my dinner money on fags.
I managed to pack in 3 years ago, big changes (not good) happened in my life and I re-evaluated everything about me and I felt that I didn't want my kids to see me poorly, my eldest also asked me to as he was worried about my health and after years of trying I finally managed to do it, I still would love a ciggie even now....but I always feel a little sad that I could not manage to do this when I was pregnant.
I do have to say that I make sure my children eat well, take exercise etc and believe people should be more worried about that.

viktory

I smoked throughout boh my pregnancies and my children were and are,fine. My daughter has had the fewest illnesses I have ever known any child to have and my son is a strapping 5 foot 10 inches. Both were 'smaller' babies but then their father and I are both short so that was to be expected.

Anwen_2

Yes, and plenty of people weren't breastfed and are 'fine' but that doesn't mean it isn't healthier to breastfeed. The thing is, you can't know until it's too late whether you'll be one of the lucky ones who makes the unhealthy choice and has healthy kids in spite of it. I'd say it makes more sense to err on the side of caution.

Tondella

black-saturn wrote:

What do you mean by poorer health? My DD1 was 5lb 4 and apart from having a few chest infections when she was a baby she hasn't been ill at all since then. Not even a cold!!! She's 11 and 5ft 7 tall.

by poorer health i meant what are termed chronic diseases, that's not chronic as in very bad but chronic as in takes a long time to develop, so things like heart disease, diabetes and obesity, rather than something you catch quickly but can recover from like flu. I'd like to emphasise again that this research is based on populations, and so it tells you who is MORE LIKELY (can't use bold or underline, techno-phobe sorry) to develop an illness, not that everyone who is exposed to maternal smoking will go on to develop the health problem. If that helps to put your mind at rest at all.

For those of us who were exposed to smoke when we were being "baked" it might be comforting to remember that there are lots of opportunities to decrease the likelihood of getting these diseases, exercise, nutrition and not smoking being the big three.

Phatmouse

Tondella wrote:

I look at the effects of smoking through pregnancy on the child as part of my research. The information that doctors have is based on population estimates, i.e. it means that what they say is generally true, but that things can vary for individuals. The research shows that people who's mothers smoked while they carried them are more likely to be obese, more likely to have heart disease and, it now looks like, more likely to have diabetes (all these in later life). All these medical conditions are to be taken seriously, however the key is "more likely", it's not inevitable for every individual.

I am not knocking anything you are saying but it does seems that there is a hell of a lot of money spent on why there are more obese people than there were. The reason is they eat to much, not their mums or grannys, not smoking, but eating too much. Heart disease and diabetes are linked to a bad diet/overeating relating to the person who has it not the generation before. Without wishing to offend anybody, the chances are that the people you are looking at had working class parents who were notoriously badly educated on diet and happened to smoke during their pregnancy. The 'more likely' element comes in as not every person you studied would have been working/lower class or poorley educated about childrens diets, therefor their children would have been less likley to be affected by obesity, heart disease or diabetes.

You can make it fit just to get next years grant you know:D

krisskross

Obesity on it's own will cause heart disease and diabetes. Fatty foods are the best tasting ones so we eat more, unfortunately the same yummy tasting foods deposit atherosclerosis in our blood vessels, causing heart disease.

The same large amounts of food plus sweet stuff, also in abundant cheap supply and very yummy make our pancreas work overtime producing insulin to utilise all the sugar which all the carbs and sweets turn into. Like any other organ the pancreas only has a limited life span, so effectively it gets used up. Nothing at all to do with smoking per se, although nicotine does constrict blood vessels so will exacerbate the problem.

mandi

MegMoo wrote:

Oh My God - I'm a midwife and I cant believe that anyone would consider it ok. Obviously it's no use getting hysterical over if she cannot give up but it is very very wrong to say that the effects are overated! Smoking through pregnancy can cause major complications, I'm not going to list them as I am sure you are aware. The most common problem is lack of oxygen and nutrients getting to the baby. You can almost always tell the placentas of women who smoke as bits of it have died through lack of oxygen. How do you think that affects the baby. It cant get the oxygen and nutrients it needs.

Low birthweight is itself associated with increased illness and death of babies around the time of their birth. Longterm effects are delays in physical, emotional and intellectual developement

Smoking may not affect the baby but the chances are it will and with an increased risk of stillbirth, death shortly after birth etc- it isnt worth the risk

Congratulations to you by the way - it must not have been easy. Your friend could be referred to a smoking cessation midwife if she wants to stop. They have access to all information and she can even be prescribed patches to help - nicotine is better than the other lethal chemicals in cigarettes. The trouble is she has to want to stop though or it will never work.
Hope that helps and good luck with the birth etc

Good post Meg , thank you..

Could you please advise your collegues ( no offence) not to smoke though..

Tondella

Phatmouse wrote:

I am not knocking anything you are saying but it does seems that there is a hell of a lot of money spent on why there are more obese people than there were. The reason is they eat to much, not their mums or grannys, not smoking, but eating too much. Heart disease and diabetes are linked to a bad diet/overeating relating to the person who has it not the generation before. Without wishing to offend anybody, the chances are that the people you are looking at had working class parents who were notoriously badly educated on diet and happened to smoke during their pregnancy. The 'more likely' element comes in as not every person you studied would have been working/lower class or poorley educated about childrens diets, therefor their children would have been less likley to be affected by obesity, heart disease or diabetes.

You can make it fit just to get next years grant you know:D

Without getting too far into this and pulling the thread off topic, you're both right and wrong. Right in the sense that our own actions as an individual are likely to have a bigger effect on our health than influences from when we were developing etc, and so the positive message to take from that is that we can all change our health for the better by taking relatively simple (though difficult to effect) measures, such as eating healthily. However, skinny people have heart disease and diabetes too, and it is no good telling them to lose weight. There is concern (backed by evidence) that exposure to maternal smoking when you are developing your lungs and heart and veins can result in changes in the body that can never be altered, such as the programming of your blood pressure.

Again, you're right in that smoking is not a random behaviour in the population but is more common in working social classes, and other behaviours such as a poorer diet, alcohol drinking, are also more likely in smokers. I would say though that alot of evidence exists to support the above, and as studies get more advanced they have taken account of the possible effect of these other behaviours and still found that maternal smoking increases the likelihood of poorer health in life. Here's a recent one, although the evidence rests across 100s of papers, and not just on one person's research.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16775040&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum

This research is also peer-reviewed which means other scientists read it and assess whether it is rigorous or not. It is very difficult to get grant money, grant applications are also peer-reviewed, but then i think you were being a little tongue in cheek on that one?!