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Originally Posted by Yosemite
I smoked during my pregnancy (the doctor told me it would be more harmful to the baby to try to quit and be stressed than to go to a milder cigarette which is what I did). Our daughter was one inch longer than normal and weighed almost 8 lbs. I was 110 lbs (when I got pregnant) and 5' 2" - I definitely would not have wanted her any bigger than that, thank you very much. She is very intelligent, is 5' 11" tall and has always been very healthy - no ear infections, no childhood diseases (in fact I sent her to play with our neighbor's little girl so she would get the measles and get it over with - she didn't get more than a couple spots), so I don't particularly buy that argument either.
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), we were all underweight at birth, and we are all asthmatic. In fact, I am so asthmatic that they thought I had cystic fibrosis as a child. And I would rather put the intelligence down to the fact that my parents are both intelligent, not that my mother smoked during pregnancy. AND I smoke. So does my brother. My eldest brother neither drinks, smokes or does any other kind of drug, but he is the exception not the rule.You are lucky you have a particularly healthy daughter. Again, yours is the exception and not the rule. Your doctor was misinformed, however at the time his reasoning would have been quite sound. No doctor would ever tell you that these days, because the knowledge of the risks involved with quitting as opposed to continuing to smoke is much more widespread - quitting is preferable every time over keeping on smoking, every time, no matter what the situation.
As I have said before, I truly believe people who can make arguments for smoking are being deliberately ignorant. Everyone knows it kills you, its not propaganda, its just plain true. That should be enough, it really should. All of these `well my grandfather smoked for a hundred years and he's fine' arguments are just that - arguments. No, of course not every person who picks up a cigarette or smokes their whole life is going to die. But they are the lucky ones, they really are.
Here's some stats. In Australia, the total social cost of tobacco use per year is 21.1 billion dollars. Smoking is the largest cause of preventable death in Australia, and causes on average 19,019 deaths per year.
In the United States, alcohol is the third biggest cause of preventable death - the first is smoking, and the second is poor diet and physical inactivity. Between them, smoking and poor diet and physical inactivity cause 34.7% of all US deaths, alcohol causes 3.5%. Although one quarter of all motor vehicle accident deaths are caused by drunk driving. This STILL does not come close to the amount of deaths caused by smoking.
I have worked on studies on smoking, and in hospitals for the last ten years, and believe me. SMOKING KILLS. Its that simple.
