Smoking around Pregnancy

I am currently 11 weeks pregnant. (I used to smoke) My husband insists on smoking in the house. It really frustrates me because all you hear is how it can affect the fetus. I also dont like to go to the inlaws because of the chain smoking their. My question is, Are they obviously addicted to the nicotine that much to even consider the welfare of me and the unborn child. (I quit as soon as I found out I was pregnant, no problem) And also what affects if any can it have? Thanks

[Mike to Brighty, Brian et al]

How selfish of your husband. Everytime you are in a room with him when he is smoking, or with your in-laws when they are smoking, your child is smoking. As well as you. Second hand smoke is lethal. A woman I know who has never "smoked" in her life, has lived with a chain smoker for years - she now has emphysema. Second hand smoke, by many accounts, is worse than actually smoking. Are they that addicted to smoking? YES. Should you refuse to be around it? ABSOLUTELY. Should you insist that your husband and in-laws take it outside? ABSOLUTELY. Anything less, in my opinion, is child abuse. You and you alone can make decisions for your unborn child - he/she is unable to leave the room on their own. So it is up to YOU to take yourself out of that environment. It may sound harsh - me telling you that your husband/in-laws are being selfish and just plain mean. But it's no where near as harsh as your baby having birth defects because your husband/in-laws couldn't walk 10 feet to go outside to feed their addiction. No matter WHAT they tell you it IS harmful to your baby. It can lead to miscarriage and/or birth defects. Some that may not show up for years into the child's life. Put your foot down for your child - NOW. Everyday of that child's development is important right now - and you MUST respect and protect that.

[barbara to pain and lortab]

If your husband really cares for you and your baby he should be willing to smoke outside of the house if he doesn't want to stop smoking!

[Neena]

My baby daughter is no 14 mos. old.  I do not smoke, in fact noone in my family ever smoked.  My husband does smoke, however and smokes in the house.  He smoked during my whole pregnancy and when I got nauseated by the smoke, I had to leave the room.  I don't like the smoking in the house period.  He is atimate that second hand smoke does NO harm.  He claims to know it all regarding second hand smoke.  Will someone with medical knowlege please give me some ammunition to use against him, regarding this issue.  He will not even go outside to smoke.  Help.  I don't want my daughter to grow up in a smoky house. Neena

[jeff]

Second hand smoke in the most usual quantities (living with a smoker) has never been proven to cause any kind of medical problems other than eye or lung irritation. This is yet another ploy by a particular political organization to feed your minds with their views. Eventually, people start believing it without question. Think about it. Let's say a smoker inhales on a cigarette. Then he/she exhales. Take what they exhaled, add it to the rising smoke from the end of the cigarette, then spread that over a 1500 square foot house. The spouse, a non-smoker, inhales the air in the house, which contains some of the smoke. If you compare the concentration of smoke from the person that inhaled the cigarette and the person that inhaled the air, the person inhaling the air only inhaled .001% of what the person inhaling the cigarette had. It is miniscule and not worthy of debate or government funding for all these insane slanted studies.

Don't get me wrong. I used to smoke, so did my wife. Smoking can and will kill you. But the same people who finally convinced this of this are now going way too far by doing idiotic things like banning smoking on city streets.

Another interesting point, my wife and I smoked through all three of her pregnancies. All three of our kids are Academically Gifted (AG) students with straight A's. Only one, the 6 year old, is certified genius scoring 169 on an IQ test. Hummm....maybe that second hand stuff really helped. Think about it. You are being duped with the second hand smoke stories.

Best Regards...
Jeff