The first expression that springs to mind is people shouldn't throw stones in glass houses.
The sad fact is you only have to walk down any high street and see pregnant women hanging out of doorways smoking. Stacey Solomon seems to be a scapegoat here.
Of course no mums-to-be shouldn't smoke whilst they are pregnant. There is no two ways about it – they must give up. If it was a planned pregnancy then there is no excuse to still be smoking. A woman should not even be trying to conceive before she has kicked the habit.
If it was unplanned – well all efforts must be made to stop as soon as possible. Smoking is an addiction but at the same time it is within everybody's abilities to give up and what better incentive than because you want the best start for your unborn baby.
Many women say a sign they realised they were pregnant was because they no longer had the desire to smoke. That shows the body naturally knows what is good for it and so it must be biologically easier to give up whilst pregnant because every facet of your being must be saying it is wrong. If not, a good dose of will-power won't go amiss.
I think people are very short-sighted. They know what they are doing is wrong but because they can't physically see the effect their smoking is having on their baby they are somehow completely cut off from it. It suggests these people's minds are not completely attuned to becoming a mum. Being a mum is about making huge sacrifices and even is not smoking leaves you climbing the walls, at least you know you are not physically harming your baby.
Every cigarette is harmful to an unborn baby. Every time a pregnant woman smokes their baby's little heart has to pump extra hard to get enough oxygen. Each cigarette also contains over 4,000 chemicals which get passed onto the baby. Toxicology tests on newborn babies of mothers who smoked have found high levels of carbon monoxide in their bodies. Smoking can lead to all sorts of complications during pregnancy and after birth.
Is this perhaps down to lack of education? There will be some mums-to-be who are just not aware how seriously bad smoking during pregnancy can be. Others just don't appear to be able to process the information and relate it to themselves and their own baby. They treat it in the same way as they do lung cancer – it's not going to happen to them.
I just hope Stacey Solomon's behaviour doesn't somehow make smoking during pregnancy more acceptable. Since her appearance on the X-Factor a few years ago she has risen to fame and popularity as one of those air-head, funny yet well-meaning celebrity types which popular culture is so keen to latch onto these days.
The best outcome we can hope for for Stacey, her unborn baby and that sector of society that looks up to her, is that she stops smoking. Maybe in this way, more pregnant women will quit.
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