Smoking around children

Don't even get me started...

I do know people who have smoked through pregnancy and I dont agree with it. My mum smoked through pregnancy with me and I have all sorts of breathing problems.

I dont know why so many people still smoke now knowing the dangers. I smoked for about 5 years from when I was 15 but gave up completely when i realised it was doing me no good. Not only do I hate the smell of smoke, but I defo couldnt afford it now!

I am quite conscious of people smoking near me and dont like breathing in second hand tar smoke. Its rank.

It's so so wrong. I'm really lucky that not a single member of our family or even friends smoke so hopefully it won't cause any problems for us but there's no way I would let anyone smoke near my baby.

WSS

I am the only member of my family who doesnt smoke. My Mum, S-Dad, Sister and Uncs all smoke. H also smokes socially, when he's had a drink. My sister gave up when she was preggers with A, and he's perfectly healthy, but she didnt give up with M and she is rather a sickly child. Whenever she gets a cold it ends up going to her chest. Poor thing.

The main reason I didnt start smoking was because I didnt want to be 'in' or a chav. I wanted to have a good time at school as I excelled at sport and singing.

A naïve and false assumption I fear. Have you seen the amount of mums to be standing outside the entrance to delivery suites puffing away? I simply don't believe people DO give up for 9 months. Thing is, since the unborn foetus has no rights, nothing can be done about it. What could be made illegal though, and should be, is mums or dads puffing away in their cars, windows closed, kids in the back. Where do you draw the line though? Can parents smoke in the house if they have kids? Personally I think it's child abuse same as I think fat mums with fat kids and trolleys full of fat and sugary stuff is abuse, but I doubt anything will ever happen. We haven't yet got to the stage where people can be told what not to do in their own homes.

At one point most people I knew including H and I smoked, but now none of us do we have all kicked the habbit which is great so hopefully I'll never have to worry about the issue, that is if I ever fall pregnant. My Mum smoked whilse carrying me which annoys me everytime I think about it, but I have never had any issues with breathing or issues you could directly link with smoking I guess I was lucky.

My Mum smoked during all of her pregnancies. Luckily, none of us suffered from it. She is very passionate about smoking, but was under strict orders that smoking around my kids wouldn't be tolerated.

I detest it. Especially when you see pg women smoking. My cousin smoked during her pregnancy, and even though it had nothing to do with me, I told her my opinion about it. When her kids were born, she smoked in another room. I asked why, when it didn't bother her that they endured her smoking during her pregnancy.

This is a real issue to me. I don’t smoke, the only person in my family who does smoke is my dad and he has never smoke around us. He has always gone outside to do it. My nephew is 1 and my dad would never dream of smoking around him. His other grandparents are a different story.

They smoke like chimneys, they do it in their kitchen with the door open so the smoke wafts through to the room where my nephew is. My sister has asked them to stop it and go outside but their response is that their daughter who has 2 kids doesn’t complain and its their house and since they are smoking in a different room its fine.

Well its not fine and now my sister won’t let my nephew go to their house as she doesn’t want him around smoking. Her partner isn’t happy about it but my sister won’t budge and I’m pleased about it.

I think, PP,that they probably didn't stop while pregnant. IMO - an ex-smoker - very few people who quit smoking for nine months would ever go back to it.

I don't know what will happen when we do have children, my mum and her husband both smoke. This will mean that they will not be able to babysit, I wont be able to visit the house with the baby, and I don't know how it will work with cuddles and stuff when they are first born. It makes me sad that I will probably upset my mum ad we will probably have future arguments about it ☹️

My mum smoked through all of her pregnancies with us and none of us have suffered any ill effects, she still smokes now but is cutting down. I am not in any way condoning what she did, I think it was incredibly selfish and it was more luck than judgement that we are all ok. She also smokes in the house when we are there and I hate it. When my niece is there she smokes in the garden which is progress for her!

I detest smoking and thankfully the only people that smoke are my MIL's fella and my mum, noone else smokes at all.

Strangely my friend stopped smoking (she wasn't pregnant, she just gave up) and then about a year later started again, no idea what that is about!

My dad always smoked, I remember sat in the seat behind him in the car, he would do it out of the window but the smoke would all blow back into my face! Same at home, he would go to the back door but not go outside completely so it would blow back into the house. My mum would be livid. Despite him smoking over 20 a day since h was 14 or so, when he died tests revealed his lungs were absolutely perfect. Bizarre.

I smoked while at uni and a bit after, not even sure why, but it was a very social thing. OH was totally against smoking when we met and eventually I weaned myself off. I now can't stand the smell, and hate it when you have to battle through crowds of smokers who like to stand in the doorways of places. I'm afraid that I really do judge people who are smoking when pregnant, over buggies, or in front of their young children. I suppose when my dad smoked people then (80s) maybe didn't know the full dangers, but I think it's safe to say at least 95% of people nowadays know all about the health risks attached to smoking and children.

I have used these before but a couple of funny smoking-when-pregnant stories:

1. I was once carrying my hamster into my house when the pregnant chav across the road, fag in hand, came over for a nosy. She stuck her head next to the cage and then immediately withdrew, blowing smoke out of the side of her mouth and waving it away from my hamster, saying that she didn't want to harm him.

2. I was once in a holiday pub with Boy, sitting on a table next to an older lady who was shortly joined by her heavily pregnant daughter. The Mum bought her daughter an alcoholic drink (a blue WKD, I recall) and although I wrinkled my brow a little, I thought "Ah, she's on holiday, it's only one drink, give her the benefit of the doubt". Daughter then proceeded to whip out a twenty pack of tabs and chain-smoke her way through the afternoon (she only had one drink, mind). Boy had to repeatedly put his hand on my arm to stop me mouthing off.

Anyway, I don't think grown-ups should smoke in front of children and, despite my social and sometimes boredom-induced habit, I would support a ban from all public places, including outside pavements and so on. If not only for the disgusting litter they leave as well. People should be allowed to smoke in designated areas (e.g. pub beer gardens and their own garden). I don't see how you can stop people smoking in their own home.

WSS.

I worry a bit as my FMIL and OH's aunt smoke. I'd be livid if they smoked anywhere near my baby/child when I have one (although I doubt they would, it still worries me).

Outside/inside, I don't care, passive smoking kills.

It's awful. There's always some people smoking next to the entrance of the hospital... as in, so you physically can't avoid their smoke as you have to walk through it to get in. I think that's vile. I have no problem with people choosing to smoke but not where sick people/babies are forced to inhale it.

My lab used to be based in a maternity hospital, with a single main entrance used for non-emergency patients, emergency patients, staff and visitors. There was something surreal about seeing a pregnant women being delivered from an ambulance, often bleeding heavily, desperation written in her face, being wheeled past a compadre puffing away on a cigarette in a massive "f*ck you".

While I agree this is very rare I actually do know people who gave up while pregnant only to start again after giving birth. My gran stopped smoking thoughout every one of her 7 pregnancies only to start again soon after the baby was born and this was before smoking was known to be so bad. She said smoking made her feel physically sick and it was always the first sign to suggest she was pregnant.

My SIL in law stopped while pregnant too, only to start again on her first night out drinking after her daughter was born. She knows it's mental and wishes she never re-started but she hasn't quit yet. She never smokes around her daughter though.

I used to work at a maternity hospital and will never get used to seeing pregnant women smoking. It's vile, absolutely vile.

My mum and dad smoke, my dad much less so. I told her well before O was born that she would not be smoking around him (not that I think she would) and that she was not to smoke for at least an hour before seeing him and to wash hands etc. It's still not ideal but not much more I can do. I always call in advance if I go round (a rarity) and tell them I'll be round soon and not to smoke.

My mum did smoke when she was pregnant which I can't comprehend. I know it's not excusable but I guess there wasn't as much information about the effects on the baby that there are now?

I saw a pregnant woman in a pub ( not a chavvy pub) go outside to smoke. I was astounded. It's one thing to do it at home/private, but in public, like that? Awful.

I'm with the rest of you on this one. I think people have a right to do whatever hey want to their own bodies but I think it's absolutely disgusting and inexcuseable to smoke in fromt of children, it damages their health as we all know and sets a terrible example.

My Mum smokes heavily, always has done and throughout her pregnancies with me and my brother. I often blame her for the fact that I am only 4'10" but my brother is over 6' so I can't really argue. She used to smoke indoors but about 10 years ago she started going outside. When my kids were babies I used to tell her to wash her hands and take off her cardi or coat before she held them. She tries unsucessfully to hide it from my kids but they see her and ask about it so it gives me the opportunity to say to them that everyone hates it and it harms them but it is so addictive that they can't stop which is why they shouldn't ever start.

I was at a mother and baby swimming class with my daughter about 8 years ago when one of the chav mums came up to me to make conversation. She proceeded to rant and rave about her "horrible health visitor" who had advised her to give up smoking and then told me how her child had terrible health problems including asthma and frequent chest and ear infections but according to her this was "nothing to do with smoking in the house around her baby" ?

As much as I don't believe that women should smoke during pregnancy (or that anyone should smoke, ever, for that matter), I don't understand why you feel that she should have hidden away at home? So that nobody was offended by her? So that she could keep her shameful behaviour hidden? Genuinely confused ?

I suspect the issue is that the woman was brazen in doing it in public, that she should keep a shameful act in her own home.

However, I posted an unpopular opinion on the first of those threads that I don't see much evidence to suggest that the very occasional cigarette (I mean, once or twice in the nine months) will cause any harm to the baby. As with the girl I observed having a single alcoholic drink, I'd give someone the benefit of the doubt for a single instance of smoking (and then judge when it's clear that they are actually smoking "properly"!).

My cousin smokes, has continued to smoke through her last pregnancy, and is doing so with this one. She feels awful, truly awful, but she can't find the strength to stop. She genuinely believed that she would stop, and she has cut down, but she is still smoking. She knows my views on it, but at the end of the day it is her that will need to live with her choice, hopefully there will be no lasting damage. I still don't feel that she should hide away at home, but that's just me.

As a smoker it also amazes me the amount of times I am stood at a bus shelter for example, usually behind out of the way from everyone else to not force my smoke onto other people, when someone will come along and park their buggy right next to me making me feel like I have to move when I am already standing away from everyone else!!!

I think smoking is vile non-stop, and can't bear it when someone smokes near me in public (results it much tutting and frowning) let alone chidren....

I can't stand smoking - full stop! However my mum started smoking ages 16 and smoked through her pregnancies apart from the last one. She's always smoked around us too. Thankfully she's given up now, so now my siblings don't go around stinking of fags 24/7! Revolting.

Totally this!!

Mys sister smoked the whole way through her pregnancy, she was told that as she had smoked for 22 years by that point it could do her more harm by just quitting. I couldnt understand it at all, she lost 2 babies, bot silent miscarriages- I count understand why she would take the risk.

My dad was a chain smoker, 60 a day at least. He had hist first heart attack at 36 and another at 40. The Dr told him after the first that if he carried on he would be dead in 6 months. I was 6 at the time and that was enough to stop him outright, he has never smoked again. If he could do it I just dont get how my sister couldnt when the baby was inside her body if that makes sense. Craziness.

Mini that is madness.

Boyos mum and dad are smokers and I have been in their living room with his mum and dad, brother and brothers girlfriend all puffing away while the two grandkids are there- I go and crack a window open and open the door through to the kitchen to try and get some sort of air in the place but they don't see a problem with it.

I have told boyo in no uncertain terms as and when we have kids their is no way any smoking will be tolerated near them.

I have been smoke free since new year and the smell makes me gag when I walk past someone smoking- I can't believe I put it in my body.

I wasn't saying woman in the pub *should* hide at home, but I was just shocked at how brazen she was soaking in public like that. She wasn't just having 'the one' either.

children born of smokers can get instant nicotine withdrawal once born. Same for any drugs/sugar etc.

Even still, I cannot understand how smoking in public is 'brazen'. I am totally failing to understand what you mean?

I think the issue is that there's a stigma attached to women smoking throughout pregnancy, just as there is with drinking.

Watching a pregnant woman smoke multiple fags would raise eyebrows just as it'd raise eyebrows watching a pregnant woman drinking in a pub.