Smoking While Pregnant - Minneapolis,MN

S. - Good for you for being concerned about this and cutting down on your smoking!!! You are doing a wonderful thing for your baby (and your son by lessening his exposure to second hand smoke). Most importantly, you are improving your own health so you can be around for a long time for your kids and husband-to-be!

Have you checked out any of the stop smoking programs that the state offers? Your OB-GYN will be able to point you to some resources (and, yes, you should tell her that you're still smoking a litte . . . hopefully she'll be supportive and help you find resources that will get you to stop smoking).

Finally, if your boyfriend smokes, see if he could stop with you - that will be hard, but you'll be less likely to start up again after the baby is born if he's not smoking.

Smoking as you know is so bad for you child, my advise is to quit, if you get angry and want to cry then cry, but you HAVE to stop.

You could try acupuncture. I am a chiropractor that does acupuncture and some people have great results.

It is very important to try what you can. Your baby is being deprived of oxygen for an hour or so after each cigarrette and the toxins in them are terrible.

Good Luck,

L.

Well first of all, good for you for cutting down to 5 per day!(I assume you usually smoke more)

If I were you I would just try to push that first ciggarette of the day later and later (that helps me smoke less). Also, don't feel you have to finish everyone you light. If you light a ciggarette and then feel guilty or it doesn't taste good, put it out. If you smoke in your house, make a rule that no one smokes inside anymore, that way you have to go outside and you won't be inhaling secondhand smoke while you, yourself are not smoking.

I don't know about the gums, patches or inhalers. I don't know if it's the nicotine that's bad for the baby or low blood oxygen or the actual smoke. You could talk to a doctor or pharmacist about that. If those things aren't any better for baby, sometimes distraction helps.

When you feel like having a smoke, take a bath first or drink a glass of water or grab some carrot sticks or chocolate or something. If you make a rule for yourself that you will try a few other things first to relieve your anxiety before you go to a ciggarette, at least you are filling up time that you aren't smoking, before you actually have one.

Also, figure out what your triggers are to smoke. Is it when your son acts up or when your fiance comes home from work? When you feel lonely or when a certain topic of discussion comes up? When you're hungry? Try to change that thing instead of smoking.

If you cut down to just one a day or half of a ciggarette a day that's still progress. Sure, quitting all together is best, but less is better than more. Good luck!