I can not stop smoking!!!! help!

[sarahj]

Im 6 weeks pregnant and i try really hard to stop smoking but i sneak out so my husband not know and have that fag that i wanted so badly for the last few hours!!! please tell me some grose facts to put me off smoking!

Thanks
sarah

 

[SarahB]

Hi Sarah, I used to smoke and I smoked for 15 years. I really didn't want to stop until my husband and I decided to start trying for a baby, I have now been completely smoke free for 4 and a half months and I have forgotten that I ever smoked, something that I never thought was possibly as I didn't think I would be able to do it. I'm not saying it is easy, but as an ex heavy addicted smoker I can say that if I can do it, then anyone can do it!!!

here are my reasons for stopping:
1. cost, it now costs £5 a pack which can mount up pretty quickly.
2. health reasons, here are some of the 200 known poisons in a cigarette that you are breathing in and pumping around your body everytime you inhale, and don't forget you are giving these chemicals to your baby as well (it helps to look at this list whenever you have a craving):

Benzene (petrol additive)
A colourless cyclic hydrocarbon obtained from coal and petroleum, used as a solvent in fuel and in chemical manufacture - and contained in cigarette smoke. It is a known carcinogen and is associated with leukaemia.

Formaldehyde (embalming fluid)
A colourless liquid, highly poisonous, used to preserve dead bodies - also found in cigarette smoke. Known to cause cancer, respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal problems. This chemical is deliberatley added to make the cigarette burn slower.

Ammonia (toilet cleaner)
Used as a flavouring, frees nicotine from tobacco turning it into a gas, found in dry cleaning fluids.

Acetone (nail polish remover)
Fragrant volatile liquid ketone, used as a solvent, for example, nail polish remover - found in cigarette smoke.

Tar
Particulate matter drawn into lungs when you inhale on a lighted cigarette. Once inhaled, smoke condenses and about 70 per cent of the tar in the smoke is deposited in the smoker's lungs.

Nicotine (insecticide/addictive drug)
One of the most addictive substances known to man, a powerful and fast-acting medical and non-medical poison. This is the chemical which causes addiction (just think - you are addicted to an insecticide).

Carbon Monoxide (CO) (car exhaust fumes)
An odourless, tasteless and poisonous gas, rapidly fatal in large amounts - it's the same gas that comes out of car exhausts and is the main gas in cigarette smoke, formed when the cigarette is lit. Others you may recognize are :

Arsenic (rat poison), Hydrogen Cyanide (gas chamber poison)



Whenever I had a strong craving for a cigarette I would look at this list and also I found that drinking a long cold glass of water really helps to as it gives you something to do with your hands.

It is really not an easy thing to do, and the key thing to remember is to not be too hard on yourself if you slip up, believe that you can do it and you have to want to do it.

Good Luck, I hope this has helped you

love Sarah xxx

 

[littlebump]

Hi Sarah

Read this link. Lou had some interesting and persuasive comments!

http://pregnancyforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1830

I gave up smoking in January - it was definitely tough but one of the best decisions I've ever made.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on - there's plenty of support for you on this forum.

LBxx

 

[lisa31]

Hi Sarah J

I found out last Friday I am 5 weeks pg. Just spent most of this evening balling in the doctors like a pratt, because I have tried to give up and keep failing every day since last friday - I totally understand what your going through - you kick yourself cos you have one, then think about what its doing to your baby, so that stresses you.

I have tried about 9 times to give up in the past - and I fail everytime.

Going to try and give it a go next week - why dont you join me? we could perhaps help each other out? [color=blue

 

[hjmpne]

i am still smoking and am currently 12 weeks today!! My doctor said you can have patches but he advised me to cut down by 1 cigarette every 2 days. i have gone from 20 plus a day to currently on 11. it is hard to give up, but i doing it slowly, which is better than not trying at all! i have my scan on monday and i think that will help in my giving up.
Take care and good luck!!

 

I have just had a fag and then been violetnly sick everyhwere I am shaking that's it - I give up - I am gving up totally. I can't handle this anymore now. My baby is too important.

 

[lisa31]

Hi Sami

Sorry to hear you were sick - are you ok now? Dont beat yourself up about it - I know what your going through.

L x

 

[mdmcholet]

I stopped in March after nearly 20 years of smoking and many many failed attempts.

Nothing could stop me, not what it was doing to me, the cost etc, just could not do it.

Then a friend suggested a book Allen Carr's "easy way to stop smoking" I had to order the book from Amazon Uk (not available here in OZ) but it worked, no patches nothing

Can not recommend it enough!

 

[lisa31]

Hi mdmcholet

I have that book too - and i gave up once whilst reading it (was also using Zyban though which I think did the trick) I know what you mean though - it is a really good book - no scare stories etc - just real 'mind stuff'

I want to give it another go though now and the docs said I can use patches, yet on the instructions in the box it says pregnant women are advised not to use them? so i dont know what to do. Surely using patches would be better than smoking - or does it mean the nictoine would do something to the baby?

You are at the same stage in pg. as me! Im 6 weeks tommorow! Im a bit worried though because Ive had some funny stuff going on 'down there' and having to go for an early scan tommorow. Going out of my mind - havent gone work again today. The waiting............................drives me mad.

 

[Sassy]

Sorry I can't help, I don't smoke!

 

[mdmcholet]

Hi Lisa

I personally wouldnt use patches - it goes directly into your system, so must go into the little one - plus it is just delaying the physical addication. Give the book another go, be positive and you will do it

Cheers
Zara

 

[Blossom]

I gave up when I found out, but I found it really hard. I also had the very occasional one up until I was about 4 1/2 months. I'm talking one a fortnight at the most and I didn't enjoy it. I found myself just holding it for the sake of it and not inhaling.

It's such an amazing feeling when you really do give up and a couple of months have passed. I really really don't miss it at all now and I feel so good about the fact that I gave up. Really proud of myself. I was a 30-a-day person when I became pregnant and i smoked for almost 15 years, so if I can do it anyone can. All my mates were stunned that I gave up, because they considered me to be the least able to do so.

It's hard, but you need to ban smoking in the house if your partner smokes. If my husband wants a fag he has it out of the window.

 

[mum16]

i wuit smokin when i found out i was pregnant with ma 1st baby
after i had him i neva started smoking again n now im pregnant with ma 2nd baby n i still havent touched a fag since

 

[boo boo]

I'm finding it hard to quit, i ahve cut down so much tho, so plan on cuttin it out soon. Hopefuuly. I feel so guilty everyime i have one, but have noticed that now wen i smoke i feel sick, so that shud help.

bec x

 

[hels]

I have been stopped smoking for about 5 years now, it was so hard, but i gave up cold turkey. My partner gave up 5 months ago, as we were trying for a baby, im so proud of him, although hes now a total pain, hates smoke with a passion!! LOL. I know people who have given up thru hypnotherapy, and have done really well, its pretty cheap now, and even more so when you compare it to the price of fags.
Babies whos mums have smoked tend to be much smaller, and often take years to catch up the other kids, also you run the risk of much worse, cot death, asthma (wouldnt wish that on any one,) low immunity. think about the babies girls. they dont have a choice.
wishing you all lots of luck if you try to give up. there is loads of support from gp's now, good luck xxx

 

[Rosieroo]

Surely using patches would be better than smoking - or does it mean the nictoine would do something to the baby?

Probably as it would go directly to the baby, they will be born addicted to nicotine, like they would with normal smoking I suppose. I guess it's because smoking etc aren't recommended for pregnant women.


Please ladies, put yourselves aside and think of the little life growing inside you. Everything you breath, eat etc goes to your little one, you are choking them! They have no choice, if you smoke, they smoke.
If you had to suffer the heartbreak of a miscarriage, premature/sick/underweight baby, does that cigarette really seem worth it? You are putting your baby at risk of this every time you light up.

 

[futuremum]

Hi!

I have read the posts and as far as patches are concerned, they are safe for pregnant women. But my midwife refused to give them to me because, although i smoked for 12 years, she said I was not smoking enough to use the patch, it would make me sick. I used to smoke about 10 a day. So I had the losanges nicotine replacement, which are great!!!! they take around 30 minutes to dissolve in your mouth so you have nicotine( at low dose) for 30 minutes. That seems long but one losange has less nicotine than one fag! The good thing about them is that you are doing something with your mouth, it is like having a mint, it is discreet, not on your arm and you can monitor the amount you wish to have a day, up to a maximum of 9. I started off with 4 a day, then 3 and now it will be 4 weeks on wednesday and I do not use anything anymore! Sometimes one when i have a craving.
I am finding it a bit difficult although I have not done badly. I stopped smoking beginning of the second trimester for personal reasons. Sure it would have been better to stop right at the beginning of pregnancy but it is not always easy!!! My boyfriend still smokes around me and he smokes around 30 a day so this baby will not be born totally smoke free but at least I am not giving him/her all the toxics. You are lucky girls who have boyfriends willing to stop smoking while you are pregnant, mine does not care and it is a shame. Hopefully, I would have convinced him not to smoke in the house when the baby is born but have no real hopes about it.
When you smoke during pregnancy, the baby will be addicted to nicotine when born and will suffer withdrawals like we do, which will make him/her cry more plus all the inconvenients you already know.
So what i do each time i want a fag, i think of the baby, not being fair for him/her and it works. i dream of fags and am very sensitive but hey after a couple of months, it should not be too bad!!!!
Anyway, good luck to everybody!!!!!

Nathalie