# You see a heavily pregnant woman smoking - what do you do? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 28, 2011, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258 "2011-03-28T14:20:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lorski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Lorski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorski)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/21 "2011-03-28T15:17:59Z")
My mom smoked the whole time she was pregnant with me and my brother, we came out just fine. No health problems at all. So I would mind my own business and not feel bad about it. Even if I did feel bad, it certainly is not my place to tell a complete stranger how to conduct themselves. And yes I smoke too. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/22 "2011-03-28T15:19:41Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > Offer her extra cigarettes. I’m in favor of most things that reduce population. Wouldn’t it be easier to go up to people, stroke their cheeks, and whisper, “Impotent”? ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/23 "2011-03-28T15:28:00Z")
> [@Cazzle](#): > > Actually, once upon a time (2007) I was in a bar and the woman next to me asked for a light. I didn’t smoke so I couldn’t help her but she started talking to me anyway. She was 19ish years old, about 8 months pregnant and had gone out drinking as a “last blast” before having the baby because her partner had beaten her up in front of their two other kids the week before. She’d spent the afternoon on the pokies (poker machines) with her mother and brother but had wondered down to the bar to have a few beers because she was running out of money. I congratulated her and wished her all the best with the birth before beating a hasty retreat. So much wrongness on one barstool… The definition of bogan. Katherine Heigl is a smoker. During the making of Knocked Up, she would take her smoke breaks still wearing her pregnancy suit. She got lots of dirty looks. If one saw a pregnant lady smoking, she could just be an actress wearing a pregnancy suit. I wouldn’t say anything, but I’d probably give a dirty look. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/24 "2011-03-28T15:41:04Z")
The one time that I can remember seeing a pregnant woman drinking and smoking I overheard her say, “I know I shouldn’t but…”. No random stranger is going to be able to overcome that. So sad for the kid tho. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/25 "2011-03-28T15:55:15Z")
And I was thinking, “Trigger the sprinkler system to put the fire out…” ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/26 "2011-03-28T16:13:28Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Wouldn’t it be easier to go up to people, stroke their cheeks, and whisper, “Impotent”? If I send you a hefty check with a list of names and addresses, will you do this for me? And video it for all of mankind to enjoy? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/27 "2011-03-28T16:14:30Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > If I send you a hefty check with a list of names and addresses, will you do this for me? And video it for all of mankind to enjoy? Okay, but I don’t take checks. I take my payment in the form of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic toys. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/28 "2011-03-28T16:27:47Z")
> [@Little\_Edie](#): > > Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t glare long and hard, though. I might give her a look, but I’d stop short of glaring. FTR, I did the same thing yesterday, when I saw this guy filling up his gas tank. He stuck the nozzle into his car, then climbed back into the driver’s seat, apparently oblivious to the dangers of [static discharge](http://www.hatladies.org/driving_tips.htm). I didn’t personally confront him, but I did find myself frowning in his direction. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/29 "2011-03-28T17:22:52Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > I wouldn’t say a thing. I don’t care for smoking & hate the damage it does to people’s health. And I know it is bad for the kid to be. > > However, it is not my business to tell a pregnant stranger something she probably already knows. I live in the US. Any woman or even girl who is old enough to get pregnant has been bombarded by the “Tobacco is EVIL” message. I’m a pretty strident anti smoker myself, and I think that any pregnant woman is almost certainly making a very bad choice by smoking (I’m willing to concede that there might be some explanation, like **WhyNot’s** story). But really, she’s heard it all, unless she’s been locked up in someone’s basement. There’s nothing that I can say to her that will make her stop. All I can do by telling her that she’s endangering her baby’s health and her own is to piss her off. I’m not her mother (my daughter is anti smoking too) and I’m not her health care professional. So I bite my tongue and just move away from the smoke. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/30 "2011-03-28T17:29:56Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Okay, but I don’t take checks. I take my payment in the form of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic toys. If you look close you’ll see the check is redeemable _only_ at the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Bank and Trust. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/31 "2011-03-28T17:30:03Z")
I chose the _something else_, because my response would depend on who the woman was. If it were my wife (or, loosely, any woman carrying my child which she wished to bring to term, but practically speaking that’s the same thing), I’d confront her and … well, not _demand_, but very strongly request & recommend that she stop. If it were one of my younger sisters, one of my beloved nieces and young cousins, or my friend “Elise,” I would broach the subject gently but firmly in an attempt to dissuade them from smoking. Anybody else? I ignore it. I am not the world’s daddy. ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/32 "2011-03-28T17:34:53Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > (have you SEEN [what](http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/wp-content/uploads/2006/04/dumarier%20small.jpg)they put on packs of smokes in Canada??) Just for fun, here’s the [whole set](http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/tobac-tabac/legislation/label-etiquette/graph/index-eng.php). Apparently the response of some teenage smokers was to try and get the entire “collection”. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/33 "2011-03-28T17:35:12Z")
I’d ask her if the [jackhammers were bothering her.](http://snopes.com/photos/signs/pregnant.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/34 "2011-03-28T17:36:35Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > If it were one of my younger sisters, one of my beloved nieces and young cousins, or my friend “Elise,” I would broach the subject gently but firmly in an attempt to dissuade them from smoking. Somehow, quite stupidly, I left my stepdaughter out of this list. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/35 "2011-03-28T17:36:45Z")
> [@mnemosyne](#): > > Just for fun, here’s the [whole set](http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hc-ps/tobac-tabac/legislation/label-etiquette/graph/index-eng.php). Apparently the response of some teenage smokers was to try and get the entire “collection”. I think “Cigarettes hurt babies” is my favorite. But I can’t believe they left off “Cigarettes make puppies feel bad.” ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/36 "2011-03-28T17:43:22Z")
The following is not a criticism of any respondent here. My first thought in response to the OP is also the _no action/feel bad_ option that is leading. But… I’m not sure how common knowledge of smoking’s in utero damage _really_ is. Yes, everyone has heard that smoking is bad for you. Probably most everyone has heard that smoking during pregnancy is extra bad. But I wonder how many of us, or how many disadvantaged women, would actually be able to name very many–or any–of the specific effects. I just looked it up and there were several things mentioned that were new to me. Also, I have to wonder whether folks who would ignore the pregnant smoker would also ignore physical abuse of a small child. It seems that the range of _potential_ harm is similar. Again, this is not an attack or even really an argument, just some reflection. ---
**Author:** ![MysteryFellow63427](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e4f/32.png) [@MysteryFellow63427](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysteryFellow63427)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/37 "2011-03-28T17:48:29Z")
Something else: I give her the good old fashioned STINKEYE. ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/38 "2011-03-28T17:56:33Z")
I’d feel bad, but wouldn’t confront. She knows it’s bad, and the Pregnancy Police are an enormous pain in the butt. On a side note, there was a recent [study](http://news.discovery.com/human/alcohol-drinking-pregnant-women.html) that confirmed that light drinking during pregnancy is fine. I am going to print it out and give it to people glaring at me for having half a pint next time I’m pregnant. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/39 "2011-03-28T18:14:50Z")
I wouldn’t say anything, but I would feel bad for the baby. That baby is going to be born addicted to nicotine, and is going to have to go through withdrawal in the first days of its life. IOW, the mother-to-be is subjecting her newborn baby to something she, herself, is not willing to do: go through withdrawal. Still, as everyone else has said, it’s not like the mother doesn’t know that smoking during pregnancy is a bad idea, and it’s not like anything I say is going to make her throw down that cigarette and say “Oh, well, I didn’t realize _that_! No more cigarettes for me!” So no, I wouldn’t say anything. > [@spark240](#): > > Also, I have to wonder whether folks who would ignore the pregnant smoker would also ignore physical abuse of a small child. It seems that the range of potential harm is similar. There is one _huge_ difference here: the mother who is physically abusing her child is _breaking the law_. I still don’t think I’d say anything directly to the mother (if she’s abusive, she’d probably just get pissed off about it and take it out on the poor kid anyway), but I would certainly notify the authorities ASAP. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2011, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258/40 "2011-03-28T18:15:06Z")
> [@neuroman](#): > > Something else: I give her the good old fashioned STINKEYE. This would also be my something else. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-see-a-heavily-pregnant-woman-smoking-what-do-you-do/576258.md?page=3)