SMOKING DURING PREGNANCY
8 January 2006

Today I talked to someone whose young niece just lost her one month old daughter. It is truly tragic and very sad. I also found out that the niece had been smoking throughout her pregnancy, that the babygirl was underweight when she was born and that she died of leukemia.
It makes me question the responsibility some parents feel when putting a new life into this world. Scientists are not completely sure if there is a strong link between leukemia and smoking, but shouldn't it be self-evident that if a baby "smokes" for the first 9 months of its life - from when it is even smaller than its smallest finger when it is newborn, until it reaches its +/- 50 cm - that it should cause some kind of harm?