Some ideas to fill in the blanks.


> "Pediatrician: Well, what I'm afraid of is that if women should be
> choose--should choose to QUIT SMOKING,  but if they should not choose to
> __QUIT________ for a very good reason, and end up with a bad outcome baby,
> then the guilt that that mother would have would be excessive, and that
> falls in the pediatrician's lap.  And more than that, society then,
> having seen some of these negative ads, would give a perception of
> failure to that parent.  It makes an unpleasant situation even more
> unpleasant.
> Interviewer: The last thing you want is a stigma on women who make the
> choice
> not to _QUIT SMOKING_________."
>
> What words can we put in those blanks?

Smoking is just one issue. What about "putting baby down on his back to
sleep?" "using a car seat every time she takes the baby out in the car?"

What very good reasons? Smoking is addictive. Quitting is very hard. Maybe
everyone else in her family smokes (much like mothers who come from families
where everyone bottlefeeds) so she has no support for quitting. Maybe her
life is very stressful and smoking helps reduce that stress. Maybe she
doesn't believe the research that says smoking is risky - her mother smoked
all her life and she's 85 years old and still healthy.

For putting baby down on his back? "The baby cries when I put him on his
back. He sleeps better when he's on his tummy. My babysitter wants me to put
him on his tummy because that's how she does it, she says all the babies
sleep better that way. My mother always put us down on our tummies and we
all grew up just fine."


> How would the pediatrician (it's in his lap now) respond to the parent who
> feels like a failure (feels guilty) and resolve this unpleasant situation
> so that mother doesn't feel guilty any more because she had very good
> reasons for not __________ ?


Ah, now there's a good question.

Teresa Pitman
Guelph, Ontario

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