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CC, honestly I do not advocate pregnant women smoke. However, the story was more that the mom tried to put the guilt trip on her daughter when it was not warranted.

My thing in life is coffee and Diet Coke. When I first went to see my OB at six weeks, I told her that I had tried to go cold turkey without my fixes but was such a crab I had to go back. She said, "Don't try to give up anything cold turkey, your body is going through enough. Cut back as much as you can."
Well I was shocked (but happy). I asked her if she told the same to smokers and she said yes. Many smokers actually go into respiratory arrest when they quit cold turkey. She said that because she did not chastise, many of her moms-to-be are non-smokers when they finish the pregnancy because they slowly cut back over nine months. And she is a non-smoker!!

I don't advocate smoking while pregnant either. I did, as did many of my friends. We all have very bright, very healthy kids, and most of us are what is considered Mature Mothers. That is just anecdotal info, not scientific study.

My OB felt I had cut enough stuff out of my life that as long as I felt OK and my vitals and the baby's vitals were OK it was not that big of a deal.

I understand nets, but it is often hard to even cut back, especially with smoking. Diet Coke is hardly addictive and can be cut back substantially in the course of a couple of weeks. My husband has cut out caffeine before like this.

I have an autistic son despite doing everything "right". It was out of my control so I can't understand why folks won't change things in their control to optimize having a healthy child. This debate over smoking is perfectly reasonable when discussing adults and government intervention, but although I would not want someone to interceed with those smoking and pregnant, I will never understand someone who does, sorry, but never. I can get someone is working on giving up smoking, but, in my hubby's family, that seemed to be more of a cop out with the mom's never giving up anything. It just kept people off their back basically while they inhaled one or two packs a day religiously. Like I said, I wouldn't mandate it, but I am well within my rights to say I think it is absolutely disgusting and irresponsible to smoke while pregnant. I can think of some other lifestyle things I find just as repugnant during pregnancy--sex with multiple partners, neglecting high risk situations like hypertension or diabetes, etc