Celebrity headlines

Chrissie Swan admits to smoking while pregnant

Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Chrissie Swan has opened her own can of worms after admitting to smoking while seven months’ pregnant.

The radio host and mother-of-two said she tried to quit the habit when she found out she was pregnant with her third child but found it too hard to go “cold turkey”.

The 39-year-old said the stress of her professional life, which includes her two radio shows and TV commitments, along with her personal life, were too much for her to handle so she decided to have a “sneaky cigarette” a few times a week.

“I made a deal. I would go easy with myself and smoke a few a week – only when absolutely necessary, after work alone in the car, and I figured it couldn’t do any damage and it would let me deal with properly quitting when I wasn’t so busy later on,” she said in a radio interview.

Chrissie admits she kept her sneaky smoking a secret, not even telling her family.

“I knew it was wrong but there is so much terrible judgment that only awful people and bad parents and idiots and bogans smoke during pregnancy, and I didn’t feel like I belonged in any of those categories so I kept it all under wraps and dealt with it how I could.”


"Woman’s Day will publish the photos of Chrissie Swan that are currently dividing the nation. Chrissie herself has admitted how grateful she is the photos were taken as they not only stopped her smoking but have sparked one of the most significant debates on women’s health in years," Woman’s Day editor Fiona Connolly said.



YOUR SAY: Is it ever ok to smoke while pregnant? Would you feel the need to say something if you saw a pregnant woman smoking on the street?

Woman’s Day magazine cover
Read more in this week's Woman's Day, on sale Monday January 28, 2013.

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User comments
I was a smoker until i found out i was pregnant. As soon as that test came back positive, i quit there and then cold turkey. I found this the easiest of all attempts at quiting smoking as i could not subject this cruelty to something that gets no say in what is being done to it. Why wouldnt you want to give your baby the best start at life? Smoking when not pregnant only harms myself, smoking when pregnant is incredibly selfish regardless of how stressed you are, just deal with it, it wont kill you.
gee, all you do-gooder know alls. you only know what youve been told(good little robots arent you) all. i dont smoke, parents did nothing wrong with me. oh, i forgot, smoking is the cause of everything. yes, im a non smoker. im just a reasonable thinking person.
take it from one who has just given up smoking - it is not easy. Unfortunately I smoked during my three pregnancies and continually regret it - all four children are now grown and have families of their own. I gave up because of a health scare and I think that as much as I wanted to give up it took something like that to motivate me. Please lets all try and help Chrissie rather than bagging her out. She knows that what she did wasn't good for the baby but she needs help and support, nothing else.
I can speak from personal experience, when my husband and I even considered trying for a baby, I had my last cigarette that day. Cold Turkey! Now that I am pregnant, I couldn't possibly imagine poisoning my unborn child with it even after birth when I am breastfeeding, smoking affects EVERYTHING. She certainly doesn't have to explain herself to the public, but this shining example should be a lesson to all smoking pregnant and breastfeeding mothers that you are not going unnoticed. I don't think the taxpayers should have to pay for your SELFISH decisions when something happens to your baby as a direct result. Fan it up how ever you like to justify it to yourselves, you are abusing your child before its even born. Good luck to all the smoking mothers babies, you're going to need it.
Social shame is not the best way to assist smokers to quit. Pregnant women can often quit for their first pregnancy but then find it more difficult with subsequent pregnancies. Relapse rates after giving birth are also so high for women who quit spontaneously during their pregnancies. Nicotine addiction is a disease and should be treated as such. There are treatment options to assist women to quit and good support, however women often feel to ashamed to ask questions or access it. Smoking while your pregnant is not the best thing you can do for your baby but as a society we need to help women feel comfortable to access support to quit. Dogmatic, abstinence based dialogues such as this one, label women as poor mothers and this is often not the case. Chrisse, from her confession, was actually not doing to badly. Having several days free of tobacco smoke during a week will benefit your baby enormously even if you do slip up. Keep trying Chrisse and ring the Quitline 137848.
I find it funny that people are coming to Chrissie support when she is poisoning her unborn child. Who is coming to her unborn child's support. The law in one instance web page Report-Smoking-in-Cars-with-Children.
I have never smoked in my life, MY CHOICE. But I know people who do, they don't always want to, but just can't give them up. They know they should but just can't. So they are made feel even worse because they can't give them up.We all do things we should not do and thank god the whole country is not on our backs about it. Leave Chrissie alone she is already feeling bad enough without the whole world being on her case.
Clearly those that feel it is ok to smoke while pregnant have never experienced miscarriage or loss of a child. Parenthood doesn't start at birth - it begins art conception and it is every parents repsonsibility to look after their litte ones (Unborn or born). This inscludes not exposing them to passive smoking. We know that it increases the rates of miscarriage, low birth weights and other complications. I know people who smoked while pregnant and their children all have diagnosis' of learning difficulties, ADHD and other behavioural problems. As someone who has lost babies previously I can't understand why anyone would do anything to risk their little one.
This is not a story for the nation. Chrissy is not responsible for explaining what she does in her personal time. She may have kept it a secret, secret from her family. That is between her and her family. Although she is pregnant, its her baby her life her decision. I can't believe this get a grip of yourselves. She may be a celebrity on tv and radio, but when she's in her car finished work for the day leave her the hek alone.
Thank you Chrissy! You have motivated me, like many thousands of others to quit smoking. Now all you need to do is have a coronary (not too life threatening) to motivate me to loose weight.

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