Barbara Wilson Clay wrote of her concerns 
"...it is very easy to judge people as bad or lacking in will-power, when the truth is they need a lot of a very different kind of help to assist them in breaking their habit."  
Exactly.  Nicotine is more addictive than nearly any other substance currently on the market (legal or illegal), and I do not in any way mean to belittle the difficulty in overcoming that habit.
I find that women rarely take offense if the focus is on their strengths and on what positive things they can do-- postponing the next smoke, reducing to a minimum, not smoking indoors.  I also see pregnancy and birth, not to mention parenting, as extremely demanding tasks.  If you can manage any of them, then I am convinced you have the strength to manage to overcome a nicotine addiction too.  My message to women is always "I believe in you."  Not "How can you do this to your baby, when you KNOW etc. etc. etc."  I don't like smoking, but I like lots of smokers.  My favorite smoker died completely unexpectedly at the age of 53 of sudden cardiac death.  We found him with a cigarette in his hand-- how fitting.  The most painful aspect of that was that my children never got to meet their grandfather.
In light of recent evidence that smoking is even more harmful to women than to men, I have started talking to women quite bluntly.  I am sick of seeing women my own age dying of lung cancer before their youngest children are confirmed (confirmation at age 14 is nearly universal here).  Women who smoke often feel they are being self-indulgent, and some feel quite protective of their one little vice.  Why can't we allow ourselves REAL self-indulgences, not just ones that endanger our health?  A morning alone with a good book, a lunch with a friend, a massage now and then?  Where I live, tobacco is incredibly expensive-- around $8 for 20 cigs, I think-- so quitting smoking actually does enable people to splurge on lots of things.  I even heard of someone who got their spouse to quit, by simply setting a match to a 100 crown bill (about $12) every evening when the smoker would light up after dinner.
While I do not want to add to the never-ending burden of guilt borne by women, deserved or not, I have no qualms whatever about allowing tobacco manufacturers to feel guilty for what they do.  I couldn't agree more with Barbara in her support of  "... the legal efforts which fine tobacco companies and make them assume some of the financial burden of treating nicotine addiction, which they promote for the basest of reasons:  profit."  Maybe it is time to include the health effects on infants in such actions.  In the meantime, I am still toying with my poster idea.  All the comments have been positive so far, so those of you with reservations should seize the opportunity to stop me before it's too late!
Rachel Myr  

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