[HopeydaFish]

If someone is a heavy smoker, sometimes doctors will advise them to try to cut down and quit gradually, as opposed to quitting cold-turkey. The shock to the body during withdrawal is sometimes more harmful than the nicotine that the baby is being exposed to. Also keep in mind that the baby isn't being exposed to second-hand smoke, he/she is being exposed to the nicotine that is being absorbed by the mother's bloodstream. This isn't the same as the parents who smoke around their (born) children. It's still very very bad, but for different reasons.

Ideally, women should quit smoking well before they get pregnant, so that they aren't going through any sort of physical stress due to withdrawal that might harm the baby. However, women who get pregnant accidentally do not have the luxury of being able to quit in preparation for the pregnancy.

On a side note, there was a case in Canada a few years ago of a woman who lived on an Indian reserve and was addicted to inhaling solvents. She'd had four or five children who were born with severe physical and mental defects, and these children were taken away from her as she was unable to care for them. She became pregnant again, and the Children's Aid society stepped in and got a court order to get her to stop inhaling solvents while she was pregnant. The woman actually went and fought in court, and made lots of statements to the media such as "I can do what I want with my body" and "I'll inhale solvents if I want to, nobody can make me stop"...she was totally unrepentant.

I'm not really sure what happened in the end. It's very unlikely that she quit inhaling solvents cold turkey, as she had absolutely no inclination to do so, and was defiant about doing it. With any luck she's dead now.