by Joey Lombardi posted in Mom Stories

Smoking is becoming a universal social taboo.
Even in France, where I admit to envisioning stereotypical sophisticated-looking Europeans swirling a cigarette in the air while laughing with a glass of wine in the other hand.
Kind of like this:

It is hard to imagine that women (in any country) are still smoking while pregnant, but according to a French study, up to 20% of French mothers continued to smoke while pregnant:
Figures from 2015 showed one in five French women did not give up smoking during their pregnancy, and French health minister Marisol Touraine said France was "the European country where pregnant women smoke the most?.
As a frame of reference, the CDC reported in 2014 that 8.4% of women in the United States admitted to smoking while carrying a child. In order to combat this alarming statistic, French officials are toying with the idea of paying women to stop smoking.
Paris?s public hospital system in association with the National Cancer Institute are conducting a study to determine if monetary incentives will curb smoking among pregnant mothers. In order to qualify for the study, the expectant mothers must:
be at least 18-years-old, no more than four and a half months pregnant and smoke a minimum of five manufactured or three rolled cigarettes a day. But perhaps most importantly, they must have a strong desire to quit.
The women would have to commit to giving up nicotine and they would be provided incremental vouc...