Mr. Christopher from the Corner Stork Baby Blog. Here’s some breaking news from those crazy British scientists. They performed a study on pregnant women who smoked and those that quit once they got pregnant only to find that babies born to the non-smoking mommies were much happier. Babies born to the women who continued smoking were all around grumpier. More bizarre still is that babies born to mothers who were smokers, but that quit during pregnancy were more temperamental than babies born to non-smokers.
The study even stranger showed that women who quit smoking during pregnancy were quick to pick the habit back up after delivery. Babies of heavy smokers were extremely difficult children mood-wise. “Consistent with this, women who quit smoking in pregnancy have better general functioning, including more sustained relationships, more skillfulness in use of community resources and less disrupted and stressful life circumstances and are less likely to have a history of social problems and antisocial behavior compared to pregnancy smokers,” they wrote.
The report also tries to point out that pregnancy is a very difficult time and that women who are smokers should not be stigmatized as bad mothers. I think that’s extremely important and being an ex-smoker I know how difficult it is to quit smoking. So instead of making smarky comments, here are some resources for pregnant smokers to help them kick the habit which not only benefits the mommy, but the baby to be.
