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Yes, smoking causes low birth weight and 99.9% of pregnant women should avoid it. However, I do recall reading that (I don't know when this started or if it is still happening), some Japanese doctors would advise a woman to smoke tobacco if she was planning to become pregnant or already was pregnant by a man who was much larger than her. A large father (probably a westerner?) making a baby with a tiny Japanese woman is a recipe for disaster. Smoking, by reducing the size of the fetus, would make for an easier birth by producing a baby that was more in keeping with the mother's ability to deliver it safety. You may say that the woman could have a C-section. Well, here's the gen: C-sections are not some kind of walk in the park - they are bad for both mother and child. Especially the child. Read up on it if you are interested. Children born in this manner have challenges that normally-born babies don't.

Just saying! Don't get mad at me. - Carla.