Pregnant Women Smoking

I hate to see parents smoking in their car w/ windows up w/ the kids in the backseat. Pregnant women smoking is just criminal [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]
If you want to smoke go ahead but why expose your kids to it.

[LetYouDown]

Choices that affect her alone are one thing. I have no problem with smokers, never did even when I was a non-smoker. But subjecting someone who can't leave the room or could have their health negatively affected because of my discourtesy is absolutely ridiculous.

I don't smoke indoors. If I'm smoking as I walk down the street and someone's coming near me, I move out of their way. If I had an unborn child that could be premature or have tons of other issues, I can easily say I wouldn't smoke.

[PoBoy321]

While this is probably going to turn into another argument that belongs in politics, I certainly think it's absurd to try to prosecute a woman for child abuse who smokes while she's pregnant. Granted, it's clearly detrimental to the health of the baby, but lots of things are and we can't go around policing everyone.

Just as part of full disclosure, my mom smoked while she was pregnant with me, although not heavily and she quit during the first trimester. I also know that she smoked for at least part of my brother's pregnancy, although how often, or if she stopped when she found out that she was pregnant with him, I don't know. She quit smoking completely before she had my sister and none of us have ever had any type of health or developmental problems.

[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.

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Am I the only one that wants to slap the [censored] out of a pregnant woman when I see her smoking?

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I really doubt that's a good solution.

Stalk her instead.

[Colonel Kataffy]

There must be something along the lines of smashing the window of a hot car open that you can do.

[oddjob]

you should grab the cigarette and break it over a tree.

[Brainwalter]

Re: Pregnant Women Smoking

So hot. Two fetishes in one.

[-Skeme-]

What a [censored] idiot.

[peachy]

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What happens to the baby when the pregnant woman smokes?

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its one of the worst things u can do while pregnant and one of the main things that gets thru [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]