No... because one is a set of problems an intelligent person would not choose.
The other set of problems is is a blight on this entire nation. (cartels, crime, gangs)
Except there are quite a few mothers who smoke while pregnant (see article below). Looks like it's about ten percent of all pregnant mothers. Not sure how many drink during pregnancy. It's probably a lot easier to engage in dumb behavior when the product is legal.
Mothers Who Smoke While Pregnant The percentage of births to women who reported smoking during pregnancy has dropped substantially during the 1990s, from 19.5 percent in 1989 to 10.2 percent in 2004. (Figure 1)
Importance
Smoking during pregnancy is associated with many adverse outcomes for children, such as premature birth, low birthweight, intrauterine growth retardation, stillbirth and infant mortality, as well as negative consequences for child health and development.1,2 Mothers who are exposed to second-hand smoke are also more likely to have lower weight babies, putting them at risk for many health problems.3 Infants whose mothers smoke during pregnancy are three times more likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome as are babies whose mothers do not smoke during pregnancy.4 Children born to mothers who smoked while pregnant, and possibly children whose grandmothers smoked while pregnant, have a higher risk of developing childhood asthma.5,6,7 In addition, maternal smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for early childhood obesity.8
Smoking during pregnancy is also associated with later problem behaviors for the child. For example, smoking by the mother during pregnancy has been found associated with substance abuse and criminal behavior in both male and female children when they reach adulthood.9
Trends
Between 1989 and 2004, the percentage of births to mothers who smoked during pregnancy decreased by about a half, from 19.5 percent to 10.2 percent (preliminary estimate for 2004). Among teen mothers ages 15 to 19, the percentage who smoked during pregnancy increased modestly between 1994 and 1999 but then declined in to a new low of 14.2 percent in 2004. (Figure 1)
Differences by Race and Ethnicity
American Indian/Alaska Native women were the most likely to smoke during pregnancy, followed by non-Hispanic white women and non-Hispanic black women. In 2004, 18.2 percent of American Indian or Alaska Native births, 13.8 percent of non-Hispanic white births, and 8.4 percent of non-Hispanic black births were to women who smoked during pregnancy (based on preliminary estimates). (Figure 2) In contrast, very few Hispanic or Asian or Pacific Islander women smoked during pregnancy. In 2004, 2.2 percent of Asian or Pacific Islander births and 2.6 percent of Hispanic births were to women who smoked during pregnancy.
There were substantial variations in smoking rates among subgroups within both the Hispanic and Asian or Pacific Islander categories. Among Hispanics, the percentage of women who smoked during pregnancy ranged from 1.2 percent for Central and South American mothers to 8.5 percent for Puerto Rican mothers in 2004. Similarly, among Asian or Pacific Islanders, the percentages ranged from 0.5 percent for Chinese mothers to 13.7 percent for Hawaiian and part-Hawaiian mothers in 2002, the latest year in which these estimates are available. (See Table 1)
Differences by Age
Young women ages 15 to 24 were much more likely than older women to smoke during pregnancy. In 2004, 14.2 percent of births to teens ages 15 to 19 and 15.5 percent of births to women ages 20 to 24 were to women who smoked during pregnancy, compared with less than 10 percent of births to women ages 25 and older. (Figure 3)
Differences by Mother's Education10
Among women ages 20 and older, those with a college degree were the least likely to smoke during pregnancy. In 2004, less than two percent of births to college graduates were to women who smoked during pregnancy. In contrast, 23.7 percent of women with 9 to 11 years of education smoked during pregnancy. Women with fewer than nine years of education were also relatively unlikely to smoke (5.5 percent). (Figure 4) In part, this is because Hispanic women, many of whom are immigrants, and who have low rates of smoking during pregnancy, account for a high percentage of women with less than nine years of education.
> Back to Top
State and Local Estimates
2004 state estimates of the percentage of births to mothers who smoked during pregnancy are available at
http://www.kidscount.org/datacenter/compare_results.jsp?i=45 http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/11MothersWhoSmokeWhilePregnant.cfm