Pregnant and smoking

Poll: How many women here are anti-smoking but pro-choice?

Sorry...I just saw this too about someone saying that it's to each their own. Sorry to say though...that if someone has a kid that is disabled because they chose to smoke...it does affect all of us. We pay for their health care...so that's why I say smoking while pregnant is child abuse...and ...probably abuse of the system as well.

I quit smoking gradually at the beginning of my first pregnancy, at the advice of my doctor, I quit completely when i was 4 months pregnant (took a while because I was 16 and slightly stupid) Then my boyfriend was killed and I went into a tailspin of depression and the doctor advised me to start smoking again because it was a crutch for me before and it would help to get me less stressed. So I started smoking again, not very often, but I smoked maybe one a week when I felt the depression setting in real strong. She was born completely healthy and still rarely goes to the doctor, rarely gets a cold. My second one, I smoked and was on birth control until I was 5 months pregnant, which was when I found out I was pregnant, it took me maybe 3 weeks to quit smoking completely with her, and I had her 2 months early, induced because she had utero growth retardation, she was 8 weeks early, 4lbs 5oz, but her lungs were fully developed and other than being premature, she was perfectly healthy. I didn't smoke at all with my 3rd (she was planned) and she was born with RSV. I don't smoke in the house, I don't smoke in the car and I don't allow others to do it either when my kids are around. I'm not saying one has to do with the other, mind you, you shouldn't smoke when your pregnant, common sense, but to each their own.

Now, my three step children, their mom smoked when she was pregnant, smoked in the house, in the car... they get colds pretty often as compared to my natural children, but still generally healthy as compared to other random kids.

Now, that said, my step kids were in a car accident with their mother about 6 years ago, my daughter took the impact and she has traumatic brain injury and left side paralysis.

So though I don't condone her smoking in the house when the kids are there for visitation, I'm honestly more scared of the ride home with her than anything else.

For the chick that said that all smokers are rude, I'll make a note of that, I was unaware, but I will try to work harder to live up to your expectations of me. All this time I've been trying to help out people like you (the dreaded non-smokers) by not smoking in public places and if you walk into my space I'll move away and blow my smoke the other way, and if you have a kid and walk by me, I'll hold my smoke in, that's right, I don't breath until that kid is well past me. Had I known that we are all rude, in order to gain the approval of my smoking peers, I would have tried harder to inconvenience all the perfect non smokers in the world.

And to the person that said we are bad parents because we smoke and aren't setting a good example, I would have to assumet that you have never said a bad word in front of your kid, drank and alcoholic beverage, or had an argument with your spouse where the kids could hear you, or lord forbid overate until you had to end up on weight loss forum. Surely you are here because you are perfect in every way and only looking for cyber friendships because you feel the need to spread your perfection through the internet.

Sorry...I just saw this too about someone saying that it's to each their own. Sorry to say though...that if someone has a kid that is disabled because they chose to smoke...it does affect all of us. We pay for their health care...so that's why I say smoking while pregnant is child abuse...and ...probably abuse of the system as well.

So wrong on so many levels. Actually not in the mood to drop my IQ by 40 to reply to this.... Maybe after another drink I could reply:drinker:

Holy crap! I missed this completely. I have a disabled child, not because of smoking, but disabled none the less, however, according to the state, she's not considered disabled because we make too much money. But seeing how you pay for her health care, I will be looking forward to recieving that check. Because she cost ME a pretty penny every year. And talking about abusing the system, she was on medicaid for a little while right after the accident, because savings only goes so far, and after about $32,000 out of pocket, medicaid was needed. After everything was looking up, we started working again and the state advised us that one of us should quit our job so we could maintain her disability status and recieve medicaid and social security. WTF? Sorry not gonna happen.

You should think about what your saying before you post, generalizations just makes you look ignorant. I pray that you never have the "burden" of having to support and love a disabled child.