just watching missbehaving mums on bbc3?

Hi there,

I haven't watched this week's Misbehaving mums yet but as an ex-smoker I can honestly say that giving up smoking is one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life. Even pregnancy didn't manage to stop me.

This is probably because not only did I enjoy it, but after 14 years of smoking around 20 a day, I was lucky to not be feeling any of the negative effects yet. I didn't have the yellow teeth, yellow fingers, breathlessness and I could easily afford it. My non-smoker husband tells me that I didn't stink of it either. I could run around all day and felt healthy as an ox.

(incidentally, I now have slight health issues due to the weight I put on by giving up. I didn't eat more and exercise less, I just got fat! One of the unspoken downsides to quitting. How unfair that that is my reward?!)

I had my first daughter whilst still smoking - of course I cut down dramatically but didn't quite mange to fully stop - and she was, and is, a happy healthy little girl who in 4 years has hardly ever been ill.

I was in the process of quitting when I got pregnant for the second time and despite having very very VERY few cigarettes, I miscarried. Due to smoking? Doubt it but we'll never know.

My third child came along when I was totally smoke free and just like her sister, she is very healthy. Rarely ill at all.

And babies are not born "addicted". They don't show any symptoms as far as I am aware. But smoking can be harmful to unborn babies and as long as babies are born healthy to smoking mums, other addicted mums to be will use this to help make themselves feel less awful in not being able to quit.

As an ex-smoker I can sympathise with how these mothers are feeling, since giving up is the hardest thing I've ever done.

I gave up whilst pregnant with my son. I was seven weeks when I quit and it was hard. I'm so glad I did it though, as the freedom you feel as a non-smoker is amazing, especially after spending years being ruled by fags. I also feel physically better and know that I smell good too!

I'm not sure whether babies are born addicted to nicotine when their mothers are smokers, but I do know that the mothers ARE addicted and it takes a huge amount of will power to give up. My sister smoked during both of her pregnancies and although her first daughter was born late and was a good weight, her second was a very small baby and was covered in excema. She also had a lot of breathing issues during the first year of her life and had asthma as a toddler. She also had several food allergies. These symptoms may or may not be related to my sister smoking during pregnancy, but she also told me that she was told that the placenta of her second girl was very poor at birth. At 7, she is now just as healthy as her sister and peers and has no food allergies and no longer suffers from asthma.

I just watched the programme and know exactly how those mothers are feeling and am just glad that I did it when I did. I'm currently 29 weeks with my second and have loved not having to give anything up this time. I think the fact that they're giving it a go is always a start and wish them luck. Most smokers love cigarettes and giving up something you love takes a lot of courage. However, it's well worth it as you will love your baby much, much more than any number of cigarettes!

Good luck to any one trying to become smoke free - you can do it!

It is a long time ago since i was pregnant but I did smoke during the pregnancy but I did give up 3 weeks before daughter was born and I had a healthy pregnancy but gained a lot of weight, my daughter was born healthy at 7lb 2oz and she never had an illness.and was not addicted to nicotine - I started smoking again 16 years later.

When my daughter was pregnant she smoked most of the time during both her pregnancies and she had 2 healthy children.I believe it is up to the individual person as whether they want to smoke or not.

A baby in the womb gets everything from its mother. Nutrients and oxygen come via the placenta and umbilical cord. Smoking not only exposes the foetus to toxins in tobacco smoke, but it also damages placental function.

When a person smokes, some of the oxygen in their blood is replaced by carbon monoxide. If a pregnant woman smokes, her blood and therefore her child's blood will contain less oxygen than normal. This can cause the foetal heart rate to rise as baby struggles to get enough oxygen.

The particles in tobacco smoke contain different toxic substances that change the blood's ability to work in a healthy and normal manner. This can affect the placenta that feeds the baby.

abies born to mothers who smoke:

* are more likely to be born prematurely and with a low birth weight (below 2.5kg or 5lb 8oz).

* have a birth weight on average 200g (7oz) less than those born to non-smokers. This effect increases proportionally - the more the mother smokes, the less the child weighs.

* have organs that are smaller on average than babies born to non-smokers.

* have poorer lung function.

* are twice as likely to die from cot death. There seems to be a direct link between cot death and parents smoking.

* are ill more frequently. Babies born to women who smoked 15 cigarettes or more a day during pregnancy are taken into hospital twice as often during the first eight months of life.

* get painful diseases such as inflammation of the middle ear and asthmatic bronchitis more frequently in early childhood.

* are more likely to become smokers themselves in later years.

In addition, pregnant women who smoke increase their risk of early miscarriage.

In later pregnancy, smoking mothers are at increased risk of the baby's placenta coming away from the womb before the baby is born (placental abruption). This may cause the baby to be born prematurely, starve of oxygen, or even to die in the womb (stillborn).

I don't know exactly, but apparently if you smoke during your pregnancy then the baby can be born with like yellow finger tips and stuff :(!!