smoking???

[MNgirl1991]

As much as I understand that everyone is making an effort to use cigs less....and I understand doctors saying to gradually go off them to not hurt the baby....I feel like it's so sad that it's so hard to quit when your child's health is at risk. I understand that smoking may not have hurt your kids or people you have known have smoked while pregnant...but what is the plus? What is the absolute positive to smoking while pregnant? There isn't one. Just like theres no proven positives to drinking. When I smell smoke around me , I quickly get out of the area- don't want to expose my tiny baby to that.

To be 100% honest, when I see a visibly pregnant woman smoking- I feel like I'm watching child abuse. I have had friends who have done it and I lost respect for them. So incredibly sad if it can't be cut out by the time they are showing!

I am diabetic, since being pregnant, I've cut out a majority of what I'm used to eating and am eating very blandly, most people would hate to eat what I have to to keep our baby safe. We all have things we are dealing with and individual challenges. We all have to be honest with ourselves and ask what is best for the baby, not ourselves.

I must agree with this post I'm afraid. I would never judge anyone by what they chose to do with their body and baby but in my own opinion I really don't understand why anyone would carry on smoking whilst pregnant. I just feel the baby should be put before any needs of your own. I was a smoker when I found out I was pregnant with ds 9 years ago. But the minute I found out I quit. And I was 20+ a day. It was the hardest thing I've ever done but the thought of harming my baby in anyway killed me. There are so many studies that show the damage smoking has on a developing baby. Of course if medical professionals have suggested not to quit then I can't argue with that as it's not my place. I wish you all happy healthy pregnancies.

I also agree with both of these posts. I smoked through a pack every 2 or 3 days, depending on how much free time and coffee I had, so while I was not a pack a day anymore, it was still very hard to quit when I found out I was pregnant. I quit the day I found out and haven't touched one since.
You know that saying "everything you eat, the baby eats?" Well it's the same with smoking. those chemicals are nasty and TERRIBLE for a grown adult to be exposed to, so what do you think it's doing to a tiny little baby?
My SIL smoked her entire pregnancy and her baby is perfect. But I'm just not comfortable taking that risk. Besides, now I have the perfect reason to never pick up the habit again. If I can go this whole pregnancy without smoking, I can go another year, and another, and then 5 and 10 years. The benefits of quitting are just far too good to ever pick it up again.
Good luck to you gals with the struggle to quit! I really wish a happy and healthy pregnancy to you all.

 

[Buffyx]

So many posts on here are making me so angry. The only people who will ever think it's ok to smoke while pregnant are the ones that are doing it! And they'll find any old stupid excuse to try an justify it. There isn't one! You shouldn't be doing it.

My mum smoked while pregnant with my sister and I (nearly 30 years ago) and we were both born with asthma and I have a lot of issues with my breathing.

 

[MamaLoCo]

No offense to your friend, but the "high percentage of nicotine" in e-cigs doesn't make any sense. You're able to CHOOSE the amount of nicotine in the vape juice you use. That's kind of the point - you can continue to lower it and ween yourself off the nicotine. You can even get vape juice with ZERO nicotine.

Good luck with that though, if you do opt for an ecig, you might want to ask for a mild smelling one. My husband is on an ecig and some of the juices he uses drive my smell sensitivity bonkers. It's not nearly as bad as the smell of cigarettes but I still wish I could get him to do it exclusively outside.

I used an e-cig a few years ago (helped me quit all together) and my favorite flavor was vanilla cupcake YUM!

Listen to your body. I had previous failed pregnancies when I was younger (21 & 22), back when I still drank and smoked...as soon as I got pregnant, my body was so disgusted by smoke and alcohol that I couldn't have it even if I tried. I've given up both since then. I'm rather upset to see the same happened with coffee before I was ready to give it up. If your taste buds change like mine did (they're supposed to), go with it!

I encourage you to quit though. Lots of people get over the nicotine addiction fairly quickly and don't realize that it's the hand-mouth habit they're having trouble breaking - that's where a 0%nicotine ecig would come in handy. You have be strong for your children. It doesn't matter what you've done in the past, or what other people have done. Lots of people will claim that nothing bad happened to their child but most of them are just too ashamed to admit to it.

 

[dan-o]

Stay strong ladies, keep cutting them down, and avoid those triggers making you crave, you can do it. I quit 10 years ago in February, one of the best things I have ever done for my health, the difference is amazing! I actually did cold turkey, 3 days later I was over it, and every week that passed I craved less and less until I became repulsed by smoking! Good luck!

 

[pgfairy]

The actual science on this subject is not as your friend has given it to you. If you read the studies and the controls used and look at what the percentage increase is for women who smoke the story is very very different than it's made to sound by health care professionals and the media.

In actuality there is very very little data on the effects of nicotine on it's own in pregnancy. Most of the significant studies done have all been on women who smoke actual cigarettes which we all know are filled with a ton of other chemicals (and they increase the carbon monoxide in your blood if you didn't know that).

Studies done on animals have shown decreased birth weights with isolated nicotine intake but only in doses well in excess of anything you could actually ingest with an e-vape or cigarettes or chewing tobacco or all of them combined.

They've tried to use the data from smokers where they show that an increase in nicotine that crosses the placenta increases the risk of problems, but these numbers are all from women who have smoked cigarettes so an increase in nicotine is the same as an increase in a whole ton of other chemicals that go into your system so it's impossible to know which chemicals or combination of chemicals are actually causing the problems.

As a chemical itself when studied in isolation you have to take almost lethal doses of nicotine to cause serious effects to a fetus and these experiments have only been done in animals! So health care professionals recommend not using replacements because there isn't enough data in humans to say it's for sure safe. But the data in animal studies all suggests that in the doses your baby would be receiving nicotine on it's own is unlikely to cause any side effects.

So pragmatically when I quit smoking when I found out I was pregnant I absolutely used the replacements to help me through. My mother smoked her entire pregnancy with me and I'm fine but I know what's in cigarette smoke and I didn't want to put that in my system right now.

You gotta watch the vapor liquids though some of them contain alcohol to get a good vapor!

 

[tryn4]

I'm just reading through some of these smoking threads. I'm shocked really. Even if there is babies born perfectly to a mum who smokes or no specific evidence of what harm it does to a baby I tend to follow a common sense rule of thumb. What I put in my body would I be able to give to a baby/child. Food yes sure. A low dose Tylenol probably in recommended dosage...A cigarette? NO a tequila shot? NO an e-cig NO like cmon I know how hard it is to quit something your addicted to but there is no greater reason and a mothers natural instinct to protect our young. Kudos to those who are trying or have quit.

 

[pgfairy]

What I put in my body would I be able to give to a baby/child. Food yes sure. A low dose Tylenol probably in recommended dosage...A cigarette? NO a tequila shot? NO an e-cig NO like cmon I know how hard it is to quit something your addicted to but there is no greater reason and a mothers natural instinct to protect our young. Kudos to those who are trying or have quit.

I'm not arguing with this statement because I don't disagree but I'm just curious, what's the difference to you between a low dose of Tylenol a low dose of nicotine?

Because when you're trying to quit smoking, both are medicinal not recreational and as far as drugs go they both behave VERY similarly, just on different receptors to cause different effects. And your logic also doesn't entirely follow because a dose of tylenol is fine for baby, but a dose of ibuprofen which is for the same ailment behaves very differently and is actually really bad for fetus but to the best of my knowledge is fine for children over 6 months old.

I only stress the point because I think it's aweful to make women feel bad about using nicotine replacement to aid them cutting out doing something that's DEFINITELY bad for you and baby.

 

[Blu10]

Its not just about not smoking in pregnancy its about not smoking when LO arrives, there are links with SIDS and smoking. I hate to see a lady with a bump with a fag in her hand as baby has no choice about taking in those toxins too. Totally irresponsible

 

[tryn4]

What I put in my body would I be able to give to a baby/child. Food yes sure. A low dose Tylenol probably in recommended dosage...A cigarette? NO a tequila shot? NO an e-cig NO like cmon I know how hard it is to quit something your addicted to but there is no greater reason and a mothers natural instinct to protect our young. Kudos to those who are trying or have quit.

I'm not arguing with this statement because I don't disagree but I'm just curious, what's the difference to you between a low dose of Tylenol a low dose of nicotine?

Because when you're trying to quit smoking, both are medicinal not recreational and as far as drugs go they both behave VERY similarly, just on different receptors to cause different effects. And your logic also doesn't entirely follow because a dose of tylenol is fine for baby, but a dose of ibuprofen which is for the same ailment behaves very differently and is actually really bad for fetus but to the best of my knowledge is fine for children over 6 months old.

I only stress the point because I think it's aweful to make women feel bad about using nicotine replacement to aid them cutting out doing something that's DEFINITELY bad for you and baby.

I'm not sure I follow you. I know that ibuprofen is not good to use while pregnant and I don't use it. What I meant is if I had a small headache I might take 1 Tylenol. If my baby had a fever I would give her whatever the infant dosage is. When I'm not pregnant and had a headache I might take 2 ibuprofen with a Tylenol chaser. When I'm not pregnant I might have a few drinks on new years eve, but I wouldn't do that while pregnant. I was just making a general point. As far as applying it to women who are trying to quit using replacement aids I really didn't mean it to sound judgemental. I am sure if your trying to quit under a doctor supervision whatever works has to be better than actually smoking. I can't understand the addiction as a non smoker I just understand having a life grow inside you and it's our responsibility as mothers to know what can be harmful. Just like I know I cannot take ibuprofen. Hopefully my explanation made sense lol.

 

[pgfairy]

Ok I'm not even going to try and quote that because the html made my head hurt, but yes I see your point.

I guess it's just so hard to know for sure what is and isn't harmful in some cases, and it makes me really angry the way media and society hypes up some things (not cigarettes, cigarettes bad we all know that really) under the umbrella of 'science' when real science doesn't come to those conclusions at all. It's like what you said with the eggs in another post and the meat. The science says that a bacteria that grows on raw meat is really bad for a growing fetus. But real science also says that you can eat raw meat and be just fine. In actual reality raw meat does not automatically = infection that kills your baby. It's the same with drugs and chemicals.

I work in drug discovery which as a background makes me as pragmatic about drugs as you are about food

 

[Tasha]

Thread closed, as it's almost eighteen months old so no point in debating the OP.