A young mother smoked 3,500 cigarettes while pregnant – claiming it was good for her baby.
Charlie Wilcox, whose daughter Lilly is now 14 weeks, reckoned that smoking would make her unborn child’s heart stronger by restricting her oxygen supply and forcing her heart to work harder.
While she was pregnant Miss Wilcox told BBC3’s Misbehaving Mums To Be: ‘It’s making the baby use its heart on its own in the first place, so that when it comes out, it’s going to be able to do them (sic) things by itself.
'Where’s the proof that it’s so bad to smoke?’
Lilly weighed just 6lb 2oz at birth – more than a pound less than the UK average of 7lb 4oz. She was also born ten days early.
Midwives tested 20-year-old Miss Wilcox’s carbon monoxide levels when she was pregnant and discovered they were six times higher than the level considered safe for a baby.
But Miss Wilcox, of Rainham, Kent, insists she was right to continue smoking. She said: ‘I think it was my right – and I don’t believe it was hurting Lilly.
‘I wasn’t ready to give up smoking. I think if I’d given up straight away, the stress would have been more harmful to the baby.
‘I felt her kick every day, and on every scan I went to she was healthy and growing. There is nothing wrong with her. I think she was a good weight, and she’s developing well and now weighs 13lb.’
Back to All News & Celebs articles
