I was a long time smoker and a party girl up until 5 days ago when I found out I was pregnant , I must admit prior to finding out I was pregnant I would constantly beat myself up about my drinking and smoking lifestyle - always concerned that if I couldn't quit for a day how would I do it for the duration of my pregnancy . What I can say to you is that yes it is hard - today I'm on day 3 of not smoking the not drinking is easy but you will get there and you will feel better about it and you will succeed.
Just trust in yourself and it will happen cutting down is a good start and I'm proud of you.
Alright, I took a 'challenge accepted' stance to discussions of smoking and miscarriage in this thread. Here are a few abstracts (and links to articles) when you do a google scholar search for peer-reviewed articles post 2012 (because, come on, to stay accurate it's best to go recent/relevant). I bolded for emphasis. These were the only semi-relevant articles I found within the first 5 pages. I should note that many articles, upon closer review, would briefly discuss smoking and miscarriage risk in a methods sections as having little or no correlation, and therefore were not addressed in the discussion and conclusions portions.
Results Of the 417 participants, the prevalence of
maternal and paternal smoking was 26.3% and 30.7%, respectively, and
13.4% of
mothers were exposed to their
partner’s smoke. One in three (n = 134, 32.1%) had a confirmed
miscarriage at follow-up. Miscarriage
was not associated with maternal
smoking (30.6% for non-smokers versus 32.4% for smokers; P = 0.737) or
paternal smoking (31.2%
for non-smokers versus 32.8% for
smokers; P = 0.763). A higher proportion of women exposed to their
partner’s smoke experienced
miscarriage (44.2% vs. 29.9%; Odds
ratio=1.86, 95% CI=1.03–3.38; P = 0.038). The association remained even
after adjustment
for the mother’s own smoking
(Adjusted odds ratio=2.22, 95% CI=1.12–4.40; P = 0.022).
After
adjustment for confounding factors, the following were independently
associated with increased risk: history of miscarriage, repeated induced
abortion, working night shifts, and frequent staying up late. Vitamin
supplementation and regular physical activity reduced the risk of
miscarriage. We did not find paternal age, alcohol consumption, or
smoking status to be linked with early miscarriage.
And because I need to add this one for good measure, I have bolded multiple parts I find relevant to understanding this article, followed by my comments in brackets.
Abstract
We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to characterize the
relationship between smoking and miscarriage{This means 'we looked at a huge group of other peoples' data. We did not go out, recruit, control, and observe our own participants}. We searched
the PubMed database (1956–August 31, 2011){Holy shit, really? You couldn't find any more recent data sets?}using
keywords and conducted manual reference searches of included articles
and
reports of the US Surgeon General. The full text of
1,706 articles was reviewed, and 98 articles that examined the
association
between active or passive smoking and miscarriage
were included in the meta-analysis. {Uhhh....what? Cherry picking your data much? Who the hell okay'd this for publication?!} Data were abstracted by 2 reviewers.
Any active smoking was associated with increased
risk of miscarriage (summary relative risk ratio = 1.23, 95% confidence
interval
(CI): 1.16, 1.30; n = 50 studies), and this risk was greater when the smoking exposure was specifically defined as during the pregnancy in which
miscarriage risk was measured (summary relative risk ratio = 1.32, 95% CI: 1.21, 1.44; n
= 25 studies). The risk of miscarriage increased with the amount smoked
(1% increase in relative risk per cigarette smoked
per day). Secondhand smoke exposure during
pregnancy increased the risk of miscarriage by 11% (95% CI: 0.95, 1.31; n
= 17 studies). Biases in study publication, design, and analysis did
not significantly affect the results. This finding strengthens
the evidence that women should not smoke while
pregnant, and all women of reproductive age should be warned that
smoking increases
the risk of miscarriage.
For those of you who have made it this far in my post, thank you for indulging my tendency to actually look into the freaking research.
TLDR; Out of the recent articles that explicitly discuss the association between smoking and miscarriage, there is no positive correlation. Many other articles briefly mention smoking and miscarriage in their methods sections, but are not noted here because they also find no positive correlation and don't even bother to mention smoking and miscarriage in their discussion, results and analysis, or conclusion sections. There is one random article that discusses the cherry-picked, fucking ancient data of a whole bunch of other people and that does find a positive correlation between miscarriage and smoking. Most of the people I know who are involved in research and publication (which is kind of my goddamned job, thanks) would never let this kind of article through editorial or peer-review.
So, OP, talk to your doctor about how to quit quickly and successfully, good luck on quitting, and on behalf of your baby thank you for understanding that this is an issue that totally needs to be addressed. Smoking is one hell of a habit to kick, but the payoff of improved health outcomes is totally worth it.
To anyone who wants to talk facts, please be prepared with some solid back-up, and try not to be an insensitive jerk about it in the process.
Some people really need to learn the meaning of be kind or be quiet.... OP good luck, I've never smoked but saw a lot of people around me struggling to stop and I send you my support!! Don't let the insensitive affect you!
You all are absolutely amazing women, what a beautiful support system!! I don't think I could send out enough thank you's for all of you that have sent me such positive reinforcement, I really feel capable to do it now! My goal today is to be smoke-free! The sooner the better, I'll let you ladies knows how it is going later on. Thank you all a million time!
Stop being deliberately inflammatory. You know that's not what anybody is saying or implying. I don't know what made you so unhappy, but I suggest you figure it out and stop taking it out on total strangers.
OP I was a social smoker and only smoked when I had drinks so for me it was pretty easy to quit cold turkey when I was pregnant. I'm sure what you are going through is REALLY friggin hard so please talk to your OB. He/she should have some resources for you. You can do this!
I really love how supportive people are when posts like this come up. It still surprises me, but I like it. Quitting anything or having the desire to quit is hard work and I'm glad people get positive feedback on here.
Woman unknowingly become pregnant while drinking, smoking, on bc, or taking other drugs. The important part is that they take the right steps to quitting this habits as soon as they are aware. Some don't even find out till much later than OP. @glow360 who are you to judge anyone in this situation and say they are not worthy of having kids? In that case you are judging every woman (not pregnant/unknowingly pregnant) who smokes, drinks, takes drugs (prescribed or not), eat too much fish, use acne products etc....all these MAY or MAY NOT at some point affect the baby.
The important note is if a mother continues these habits without attempting to quit then yes that is selfish and unfair to the baby.
Op I have never smoked but you are headed in the right direction in quitting. I agree with many of the suggestions others ladies have provided. Hang in there. You can do this! I wish you a happy and heathy pregnancy!
she shouldn't be having kids because she's making a concious effort to cut back & soon quit smoking? are you done with the idiotic comments, or do you still have a few more you're waiting to use..?
Ya know, I like to keep my list of those who 'shouldn't be having kids' pretty short. Sexual predators, serial killers, and people who are still children themselves pretty much round out that category (the latter for drastically different reasons than the two former), but I'm also not into eugenics or pride for the third reich or anything, so maybe that's where my skewed viewpoints come from. My bad.
I think you're seriously confused about the effects of smoking on pregnancy. They're helpfully listed above. It's not good, but it's hardly the worst thing someone can do while pregnant and isn't getting into "shouldn't have kids" territory. Comments like yours are also shown to not be helpful to those trying to quit. Maybe you should try saying them to someone, see what happens. Maybe try doing some research before spouting off inflammatory nonsense.
OP don't let this person get to you too much. It isn't the first time she's gone off the rails.
@Glow360 it is sad that you are stil here offering nothing but lies. go back to over 35 board and leave everyone else the hell alone since you only spew negetivity and hate.
Now that is absolutely ludicrous and extremely hateful. I have been. TTC for 9 mo and have been waiting for my BFP for a what seems like a lifetime, so don't you dare tell me I shouldn't have a child. I am doing my damn hardest to provide a beautiful womb for my baby and will continue to do so, and thank to the rest of the women that have commented I feel encouraged and that I am strong enough to do this because I have them on my side, not you. How would it feel if I told you that you shouldn't be having kids because you're too old? Yeah. So get the hell off of my post telling me I shouldn't have a child. Absolutely ridiculous.
Now that is absolutely ludicrous and extremely hateful. I have been. TTC for 9 mo and have been waiting for my BFP for a what seems like a lifetime, so don't you dare tell me I shouldn't have a child. I am doing my damn hardest to provide a beautiful womb for my baby and will continue to do so, and thank to the rest of the women that have commented I feel encouraged and that I am strong enough to do this because I have them on my side, not you. How would it feel if I told you that you shouldn't be having kids because you're too old? Yeah. So get the hell off of my post telling me I shouldn't have a child. Absolutely ridiculous.
OP, I am not a smoker but I do remember my OB mentioning that if I was a smoker, that it is best to slowly quit and wean yourself off (both for you and baby), than it is to quit cold turkey. Like the previous poster mentioned, try and do something else when you feel the urge, and one less cigarette a day, is one step closer. I have had a couple of friends busy themselves with adult coloring books to relax, or having sunflower seeds (the kind in shell)....which gave them something to do with their mouth/hands. Not a single one of them went back to smoking after baby was born, although every once in awhile they would still get the urge. Stay strong, and take it one day at a time! Ignore the hateful person in this thread, while in one breath she is saying that its sad that nobody is for the unborn baby, she is posting on another board mentioning how she will terminate if there is something wrong with her's. So you do you, keep on trying, because trying to quit is better than throwing up your hands and giving up....then continuing to smoke throughout your whole pregnancy.
OP, I am not a smoker but I do remember my OB mentioning that if I was a smoker, that it is best to slowly quit and wean yourself off (both for you and baby), than it is to quit cold turkey. Like the previous poster mentioned, try and do something else when you feel the urge, and one less cigarette a day, is one step closer. I have had a couple of friends busy themselves with adult coloring books to relax, or having sunflower seeds (the kind in shell)....which gave them something to do with their mouth/hands. Not a single one of them went back to smoking after baby was born, although every once in awhile they would still get the urge. Stay strong, and take it one day at a time! Ignore the hateful person in this thread, while in one breath she is saying that its sad that nobody is for the unborn baby, she is posting on another board mentioning how she will terminate if there is something wrong with her's. So you do you, keep on trying, because trying to quit is better than throwing up your hands and giving up....then continuing to smoke throughout your whole pregnancy.
Just want to mention that my OB/hospital had a great program called the baby's breath project to help pregnant women quit smoking. I quit smoking on my own, but if you're finding yourself struggling it might be worth it to see if there's something similar in your area.
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Re: Pregnancy & smoking
You forgot this part.
Married: October 2014
TTC #1 since September 2015
OP good luck, I've never smoked but saw a lot of people around me struggling to stop and I send you my support!! Don't let the insensitive affect you!
The important note is if a mother continues these habits without attempting to quit then yes that is selfish and unfair to the baby.
Op I have never smoked but you are headed in the right direction in quitting. I agree with many of the suggestions others ladies have provided. Hang in there. You can do this! I wish you a happy and heathy pregnancy!
OP don't let this person get to you too much. It isn't the first time she's gone off the rails.
Get off your high horse.
Now that is absolutely ludicrous and extremely hateful. I have been. TTC for 9 mo and have been waiting for my BFP for a what seems like a lifetime, so don't you dare tell me I shouldn't have a child. I am doing my damn hardest to provide a beautiful womb for my baby and will continue to do so, and thank to the rest of the women that have commented I feel encouraged and that I am strong enough to do this because I have them on my side, not you. How would it feel if I told you that you shouldn't be having kids because you're too old? Yeah. So get the hell off of my post telling me I shouldn't have a child. Absolutely ridiculous.
Damn right.
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Please note that we remove posts that do not follow our guidelines and will issue warnings to users who violate the Terms of Use.
To review our Community guidelines, please visit the Bump Guidelines pinned at the top of this board. Thank you.