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.
Wouldn’t it be easier to go up to people, stroke their cheeks, and whisper, “Impotent”?
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.
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.
And I was thinking, “Trigger the sprinkler system to put the fire out…”
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.
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. I didn’t personally confront him, but I did find myself frowning in his direction.
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.
If you look close you’ll see the check is redeemable only at the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Bank and Trust.
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.
Just for fun, here’s the whole set. Apparently the response of some teenage smokers was to try and get the entire “collection”.
Somehow, quite stupidly, I left my stepdaughter out of this list.
I think “Cigarettes hurt babies” is my favorite. But I can’t believe they left off “Cigarettes make puppies feel bad.”
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.
Something else: I give her the good old fashioned STINKEYE.
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 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.
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.
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.
This would also be my something else.