Smoking and pregnancy on Five Live tonight
Sunday, June 5, 2011 at 21:09 Got a call this afternoon from the Stephen Nolan Show on Five Live.
They want to talk about women smoking during pregnancy. It follows a story in today's papers about former EastEnders actress Hannah Waterman who is "seven months pregnant but can't stop smoking".
I said I was happy to do tonight's programme but I suggested the names of a couple of people who I felt could speak with greater authority on the subject, not least because they are women who smoke and have children.
One of them is Pat Nurse.
Coincidentally Pat deleted her blog Tea and Cigarettes this weekend. I understand her reasons for doing so - although I reject strongly her recent and protracted criticism of our Voices of Freedom event with Peter Hitchens - but I know she will be a passionate and articulate speaker, which is why I recommended her.
I understand she will be on after 11.00pm. Worth staying up for.
Reader Comments (16)
Are you sure Pat's blog has been deleted Simon?
Well, that went surprisingly well. Call me biased if you like, but Pat wiped the floor with her opponent (who seemed to be arguing a completely different question at times). In fact, biased doesn't come into it, there was no other conclusion a neutral could possibly come to.
Congrats Patsy. :)
Pat was absolutely brilliant tonight on BBC 5Live, she more than held her own. Pat made mincemeat of the other speaker.
Well done Pat! Nice voice too.
You can take me dancing anytime.
I heard Pat Nurse She was VERY GOOD.
Just listened - well done, Pat (and it was heartening that most callers sympathised)!
She was very, very, good. People like Pat Nurse and Dave Atherton make good media and we should be seeing and hearing more of them. I hope it's ratcheted up to Newsnight and Radio 4 level but I've no doubt the independent stations will want more of them, at least. It's a good, feisty, debate, not the settled matter the antis want and where it's been allowed,we're winning on points.
The problem though is that Parliament relies on Scoth and the All party committee. That's where the battle lies but more exposure of our side is all to the good.
Well done, Pat, keep it up.
Simon you maybe interested in this, this and this.
"Smoking in first four months of pregnancy 'does not harm the baby'
"A recent collaborative analysis of 53 epidemiological studies found that cigarette smoking had little or no independent effect on the risk of women developing breast cancer, note Kirstin Pirie and colleagues from the University of Oxford in the UK."
"Women who smoke after their first full-term pregnancy have half the risk of developing breast cancer."
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-514330/Smoking-months-pregnancy-does-harm-baby.html#ixzz1OTwwx7tE
http://www.medwire-news.md/380/75807/Breast_Cancer/Tobacco_smoke_exposure_does_not_increase_breast_cancer_risk.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-514330/Smoking-months-pregnancy-does-harm-baby.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/3593568/Smoking-is-not-all-evil.html
Could I add this -
What I didn't know until I started researching is that carbon monoxide along with nitric oxide, is already made in the body as an anti-inflammatory and is part of the workings of the immune system.
This was only very recently discovered and makes sense of a lot of things.
The gas in cigarette smoke 'that could save a pregnancy'
"Carbon monoxide could help control a life-threatening condition in pregnant women"
"The Canadian research followed the observation that women who smoke are less likely to develop pre-eclampsia"
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-405425/The-gas-cigarette-smoke-save-pregnancy.html
Rate of pre-eclampsia in pregnancy reduced by smoking.
"Wikstrom and her colleagues found that of the over 600,000 Swedish women who gave birth between 1999 and 2006, those that smoked during pregnancy were one-third to one-half less likely to develop preeclampsia as non-smokers.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/1853628/smoking_may_reduce_pregnancy_complication/index.html
"Preeclampsia is a syndrome marked by a sudden increase in blood pressure after the 20th week of pregnancy and a buildup of protein in the urine. Left untreated, it can develop into a life-threatening condition called eclampsia, which can cause seizures or coma."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/04/21/us-smokers-pregnancy-idUSTRE63K3EN20100421
Carbon monoxide touted as a potential treatment for pre-eclampsia
"The ideal would likely be to maintain carbon monoxide levels comparable to a moderate (say one pack per day) smoker without all the bad stuff in cigarette smoke," he added."
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/8778.html
Brilliant Pat. Can be heard again
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b011llqj
1.12.00 in
Pat, you were brilliant. Just what we need.
Terrific Pat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pat what a brilliant effort. Hope it didn't take too much out of you. Please carry on - lets hear more from you - but whats happened to your blog ??
Pat's blog is back up, but she won't be writing anymore. Comments welcome.
Read more here.
Thanks for the link Chas.
Now I've heard it, very well done indeed Pat.
I see the woman on the BBC described women who smoke during pregnancy as 'evil.' As bad as Jamie Bulger's killers, Victoria Climbe and or Baby P?
Indeed, well done Pat! Most specifically in refusing to accept the propaganda being emitted by whoever. You were perfectly correct to tell her to mind her own business! Allied with that, was your statement that the moderate smoking in pregnancy is harmless, if not, indeed, protective. You saw off the opposition by being direct and to the point and refusing to accept any of their arguments. "No...that is not true" is a very, very powerful argument, and should be used more often, especially when the opposition's argument is vague, generic and 'one size fits all'.
Well done!