Pregnancy is not easy. The impact is both external and internal, considering the massive change that a woman’s body is subjected to. It results in mood swings, morning sickness, body pain, swelling and the likes. No matter how prepared one is to take on the onus of motherhood, a fear always lingers at the whole new world that’s about to begin. Now imagine unprepared, teen mothers going through the same.
In a bid to minimise the pain during childbirth, pregnant teens are smoking to reduce the pain they would go through. To reduce the birth-weight of their unborn children, many teen mothers- to- be are taking up the habit of smoking. They prefer a smaller child to a healthier one, and the trend is catching on alarmingly fast.
Simone Dennis of the Australian National University told the Daily Telegraph,
“They had read on packets that smoking can reduce the birth weight of your baby, which is obviously not how the public health message is intended to be taken.”
The packs of cigarettes they carry state that smoking during pregnancy can result in the reduction of the child’s birth weight. The girls are not looking at it as a warning against health hazards of the child, but as a way to reduce pain during pregnancy. They are unaware that it can cause a permanent impact on the growth and development of the child, says The Independent.
Another bizarre reason for the trend to flourish is, well, ‘cuteness’ apparently. When the girls are told that they are carrying girl children, they smoke so that the child they give birth to is ‘cute’ because ‘small is cute’. The bodies they are using to bring these children into the world can definitely do great things, but it cannot grow the child within another pair of lungs.
Addicted to smoking, they need medical advice and help to quit.
Let’s hope ignorance does not prevail for too long.