EVERYTHING the doctors have asked my wife to do, I've watched her to do without any hesitation. Today I was paranoid about her driving our car for the first time in months as she'd previously been not able to due to morning sickness and then the impacts of TTTS. In the past she'd driven to the shops and then felt too ill to drive back home. I was uncomfortable about this happening again. She was excited to be catching up with a friend for lunch but just for me she found another way to do this that didn't involve her driving. She could see my concern for her to catch up for lunch was smaller than my concern for her and my boys well being. Was my fear rational? Probably not but she still put our boys first.
Our trips to hospital recently have been relatively positive and there is much to be happy about but there is one thing that makes me incredibly angry during every trip. As we head to the hospital entrance there are always 2 or more pregnant women puffing away on cigarettes. These women have a right to choose, it's a free country, right? Who am I to judge? Well, right now I'm an optimistic father going back and forth to a hospital for HIGH RISK pregnancy and watching my wife do EVERYTHING she can to give my boys the best chance possible.
I'm a reasonably liberal guy and I believe that adults have the right to make their own decisions if they don't impact others. Heck, if someone chooses to smoke knowing the consequences then that is their life. It's not my right to take a cigarette away from them any more than it's my right to force a non-smoker to have a cigarette.
So why do I see this issue differently? Well it absolutely pains me to think that these poor developing people may never make it out of the womb due to a conscious choice by their mother. Have you ever heard anyone say "Gee, I wish my mum smoked whilst she was pregnant with me"? These children are simply not getting a fair chance. Even if they do make it, is a pregnant woman that puts her need to smoke ahead of her child's need to survive going to change her priorities once her child is born? Maybe but I'd dare guess that in many cases they would not. We live in a world where we try to preach equality and it pains me to see these kids not getting an equal chance.
Ever heard anyone advocating child abuse? No, I think it's a "wrong vs right" scenario that is obvious to most of us. In Australia, we now have laws against smoking in cars with children. Government has stepped in and said that parents no longer have the right to choose to smoke when it negatively impacts children around them. If government doesn't draw the line, who should? Well, I hope that in the future more and more pregnant mothers draw it themselves for the benefit of their kids.
My boys have been incubating (smoke free) for 27 weeks and 1 day today. What can we do to convince all mothers to create this environment for their unborn children?
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