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Excerpts from: HEALTH ZONE: JILL PALMER'S MEDICAL
          CASEBOOK: MY SMOKING CAUSED MY BABY'S
          ASTHMA..I FELT SO GUILTY I GAVE UP

The Mirror [07/06/00] To read the entire article, click here: The Mirror

          CHARLOTTE Lawson never forgave herself when her
          first child was born skinny and sickly because she
          smoked during pregnancy. For the first four years of his
          life, son George suffered asthma, chest infections and
          coughing. Charlotte, 23, says: "I didn't believe the
          doctors when they told me George was ill because of my
          habit. I thought they were taking the easy way out by
          blaming me.

          "But the truth is that although I did have concerns about
          harming my unborn baby, my craving for a cigarette was
          bigger. In the end, I was to blame." You can see why
          Charlotte was determined to quit when she fell pregnant
          with her second child. Joseph wasborn a healthy 8lbs
          9ozs last month. And within weeks of Charlotte giving up
          the weed - and banishing the smell of smoke from
          herself and the house - five-year-old George's health
          improved dramatically.

          He has not suffered a single chest infection or cough and
          no longer has asthma. Charlotte says: "He was so poorly
          all the time I was a smoker - he needed two inhalers for
          his asthma. But once I quit, I was able to throw them
          away. For the first time, he can run around at school
          without getting out of breath. "Joseph is so much
          healthier than George was at his age.

          It is obviously because I no longer smoke." Almost
          one in three pregnant women now regularly smokes -
          even though it increases the chance of miscarriage and
          stillbirth by a third. Babies are twice as likely to be
          premature, three times more likely tobe small and
          underdeveloped and have five times the risk of cot
          death. Smoking increases the chances of congenital
          defects such as cleft palates and limb abnormalities.

          Children are also below average in reading ability and
          educational achievement. Charlotte started smoking
          when she was 13 "because everybody at school
          smoked". She knew her parents would be horrified so
          she ensured she smoked the 10 cigarettes she bought
          each morning before she got home from school.

          She was still puffing when she became pregnant for the
          first time - although she cut down to eight a day. "People
          assume that when you become pregnant, you don't want
          to smoke any more. But that certainly isn't the case. My
          partner Danny and my parents tried to persuade me to
          give up but I was obviously addicted. "George weighed
          7lbs 6ozs when he was born but he was underweight for
          his length and very skinny." Despite George's ill-health,
          Charlotte continued to smoke - although she tried not to
          light up in front of her son, confining her smoking to the
          evening or in the garden.