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Disturbing News About Smoking And Pregnancy

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mikey4444 | 09:10 Fri 16th Oct 2015 | News
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-34543606

The regional difference here are huge. Can it all be put down to social class that these mothers come from ?
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Poor education combined with low expectations and bad role models mean that young people are more likely to smoke, and when they become pregnant (for the exact same reasons) that are more likely to smoke when pregnant. I don't like to use the term lower social class, but they are from families that have had little social mobility over the generations and they...
09:27 Fri 16th Oct 2015
What have regions got to do with social class?
How do they know that a miscarriage/still birth/prem birth wouldn't have happened anyway? They don't....

I'm not advocating smoking in anyway or form...especially in pregnancy...but many of us are here today after being carried by drinking and smoking mothers.
Question Author
Perhaps there are more poorer communities in poorer areas AOG. I have been working in the poorer communities of the South Wales valleys for many years now, and its amazing how many young women you see walking around the streets, smoking. But when I go to a wealthier area, the incidence is much less.
Question Author
Ummmm....I don't think anybody now doubts that smoking in pregnancy doesn't carry a higher risk.
Social class? Does that really still exist?

If you mean does it relate to wealth I'm not sure that holds either. Smoking and drinking in pregnancy seems to be across all walks of life. I'd put it down to a mixture of ignorance and arrogance.

It's the me me me culture I'm afraid.

Still, it would be interesting to see more detailed stats to see exactly why.
Poor education combined with low expectations and bad role models mean that young people are more likely to smoke, and when they become pregnant (for the exact same reasons) that are more likely to smoke when pregnant. I don't like to use the term lower social class, but they are from families that have had little social mobility over the generations and they are chiefly, less well off.
I live in an affluent are Micky but there are still plenty big bellied teenagers smoking.

With the very young it may also be down to the 'IT wont happen to me' mentality. We all (well most of us) thought we were invincible as a teenager.

Are there higher rates of teenage pregnancies in different regions? Are there more foreigners in certain regions (smoking in many EU countries is far more accaptable than the UK & Eire)
I'm sorry Gromit but I disagree that smoking and teenage pregnancies are the domain of the lower paid.

You may be right in the case of the social underclass though.
And the demographics show that areas deemed poor have worse health (in all criteriets that well off areas. So the regional variations do correlate with differences in health.
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I don't think that social class ever went away YMB ! Its just that we define it differently these days. I know from first hand experience, that incidents of smoking increases as you go down the social scale. Its mostly to do with education and upbringing.

What worries me though, is that smoking still seems to be popular with the younger generation, especially with school-age kids and especially with girls.

When I was a boy back in the 60's, most people smoked, especially from working-class backgrounds, and I and my brothers all smoked. But none of us still smoke now, although I have 2 nieces who do !
But it could also be habits of areas that cause ill health.

For instance I notice when I go up North there are far more pubs, more smokers and many more fried food and pie outlets all of wich are considerably cheaper than the North.

I was bough up eating lard Sandwiches laced with salt and pepper, my mother kept a bowl of fat to fry chips and we ate pea fritters and battered sausages regularly. Living in the South these habits have changes and I only have them as a treat but going buck up there it is not just a treat still.
Ymb,
I am not saying only lower paid mothers smoke when pregnant. The demographic that they found in Blackpool probably won't be paid at all. They will generally be very young mothers and in a lot of cases too young to even buy cigarettes themselves.
//I know from first hand experience, that incidents of smoking increases as you go down the social scale. //

You may have seen the bottom scale but have you mixed with Bankers?

I can assure you that many smoke, especially traders. And they are certinaly not poor.

Clegg smoked too along with others in Politics. Are they poor?

I think it may well be more regional that it is accepted rather than driven by poverty.
more evidence if it were needed mikey of the the total and utter selfishness of the smoker. That's why we had to legislate against them gassing their own children in their cars, that's why we have to stop them smoking in bars. Unchecked their disgusting habit is more important to them than anything, even the lives of their own unborn children. Frankly I am horrified that given the known issues that even 1 expectant mother willingly filters 500+ poisonous substances through the body of her unborn child, disgusting.
"What worries me though, is that smoking still seems to be popular with the younger generation, especially with school-age kids and especially with girls. " - sadly mikey they think it keeps them slim.
"...and they are chiefly, less well off."

Which I find quite strange because, as I'm led to believe, cigarettes cost about 40p each.
"...especially with girls. " - sadly mikey they think it keeps them slim. "

Which is also strange because getting pregnant does quite the opposite.
NJ, 40p each? Tell me where I can get them at that price. More like 50p
@mikey4444

Paying tax before they're old enough to vote? People are strange!

It's rarely discussed on TV debate shows and I'd be dragged out of the studio for asking this but are they acquiring their nicotine addiction via flirting with cannabis? It is either peer pressure or natural curiosity which gets them to accept a joint, passed to them at a party, but they have no control over what substances were used to make it. Nicotine hooks people remarkably quickly.



Then I stand corrected, jackdaw. I thought they were around £8 a pack. So I'm even more surprised.

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