Mom Smoked 20 Cigarettes A Day While Pregnant — And Claims It HELPED Her Baby! Experts Weigh In!

Charlie Wilcox even kept up her relentless tobacco habit after doctors warned her smoking could kill her unborn baby! She guesses she puffed through 3,500 cigarettes during her pregnancy!

Her daughter Lilly was born early and underweight, but Charlie Wilcox, 20, still refuses to believe she has done anything to harm her baby! How do you feel about this, HollyMoms?

“On an average day I’d smoke a minimum of 20,” Charlie, from Kent, England tells the Daily Mail. “I think it was my right and I don’t believe it was hurting Lilly.”

Explaining her bizarre theory that her smoking HELPED her baby, she adds, “If I was smoking so much and it was cutting off oxygen to the baby, then surely it would have made her use her own heart and the muscles she’d have to use when she was out.”

Baby Lilly shows no current signs of ill-effect, but experts tell HollyBaby.com Charlie’s smoking definitely put her daughter’s life at risk — and Lilly is still at danger until the smoking mom kicks her habit.

Tara A. Solomon, Medical Director of The Women’s Wellness Center of South Florida, explains, “Cigarette smoking during pregnancy places the mother at risk for placental abruption (premature separation of the placenta from the uterus ) which can be life threatening. Stillbirth can also occur because of fetal hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Babies exposed in utero to cigarettes have an increased incidence of birth defects such as cleft lip and cleft palate, low birth weight, and cerebral palsy. Babies exposed to second hand smoke after birth are more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and are at greater risk for asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia , ear infections and respiratory infections.”

OB/GYN Dr. Terry Hoffman agrees: “Smoking is NOT good for a baby. No study will tell you that. It makes for small babies and babies that are born to smokers are at an increased risk for asthma and allergies. You shouldn’t do it!”

Now what do YOU think HollyMoms? Does anyone agree with Charlie?

— Ian Garland, reporting by Jessica Krampe

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