Suggestions on ways to quit smoking during pregnancy

[s361768]

Sorry if I offended anyone as well - re. my previous two posts.

I don't think that is it constructive for mothers or other pregnant women, even those that have managed to give up, to critisize or make other women feel bad for their addiction/s.

Not only are cigarettes physiologically addictive but they are also psychologically addictive too - how each person responds to cigarette addiction, withdrawal etc is individual. That is one reason why it is not right to judge and make others that are still struggling with their addiction feel like failures.

For example: By boasting that you gave up when you were pregnant....because you were horrified at the thought that you were poisoning your baby etc etc etc. makes me feel selfish, it makes me feel helpless - stating the obvious about the harms and risks during pregnancy does not help - it feels like women are coming in here and saying this to be spiteful, and all it does is invoke feeling of shame - because I know...I think everyone knows what the dangers of smoking are.

And saying.... "give up smoking then, if not for yourself but for your baby" is a comment I get a lot and I feel that this inflicts nothing but guilt. GIving up smoking is not easy, and it certaintly is not made any easier with comments such as these.

By the way this is not an angry post - I dont mean for it to come across that way, I am sorry if it does (I am not attacking anyone in this thread).

[Aranah]

Sorry if I offended anyone as well - re. my previous two posts.

I don't think that is it constructive for mothers or other pregnant women, even those that have managed to give up, to critisize or make other women feel bad for their addiction/s.

Not only are cigarettes physiologically addictive but they are also psychologically addictive too - how each person responds to cigarette addiction, withdrawal etc is individual. That is one reason why it is not right to judge and make others that are still struggling with their addiction feel like failures.

For example: By boasting that you gave up when you were pregnant....because you were horrified at the thought that you were poisoning your baby etc etc etc. makes me feel selfish, it makes me feel helpless - stating the obvious about the harms and risks during pregnancy does not help - it feels like women are coming in here and saying this to be spiteful, and all it does is invoke feeling of shame - because I know...I think everyone knows what the dangers of smoking are.

And saying.... "give up smoking then, if not for yourself but for your baby" is a comment I get a lot and I feel that this inflicts nothing but guilt. GIving up smoking is not easy, and it certaintly is not made any easier with comments such as these.

By the way this is not an angry post - I dont mean for it to come across that way, I am sorry if it does (I am not attacking anyone in this thread).

Since I feel this post is aimed at me, I feel inclined to reply to it.

My post was directed at the post over the page, I'm sorry if I offended you, I didn't even read your posts previously and didn't even know you posted to this thread. I was referring to the lady that smoked all through her pregnancies and talked about how her baby's were fine, high birth weights, etc. I wasn't critisizing anyone, but a post like that upsets me because it downplays the affect of smoking on babies. I wasn't 'boasting' that I gave up either like you imply, I felt the need to mention it so people knew that I wasn't coming from a completely blind perspective, that I 'get' how hard giving up is.

I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty, I only read the OPs post and then the one I referred to over the page which is why I was just saying that saying that your babies are fine despite smoking isn't something to be proud of. And the member also refers to asking her doctors to give her concrete proof and she said they couldn't - well, it's very well known and been proven over and over again that smoking DOES cause bad effects in babies. There's no disputing that.

It was the only thing that made me give up, to see the harsh reality of no matter what way I wanted to paint it in my mind, that I could to very bad things by continuing to smoke, and this was confirmed once I started bleeding in pregnancy and continued to bleed till I was 14 weeks pregnant. I don't see how me saying that I saw giving up smoking was for my baby, not for me is trying to make you feel guilty. I was talking about my experience and I don't feel responsible if that makes you feel guilty or selfish. I have just as much right to talk about my experience as anyone else on this thread.