We found that 33 per cent of pregnant women smoke and, of those, approximately 70 per cent continue to smoke throughout their pregnancy. Dalhousie physicians Linda Dodds and Gerry Brosky also co-authored the study, which was published in the Aug. 8 edition of the journal. The research involved 8,528 women who gave birth in hospital in Nova Scotia in 1997. Medical personnel collected information on smoking rates at prenatal visits, during labour and delivery, and in the postpartum period before discharge from hospital. I wasn't completely surprised, I have to say . . .
Cigarette smoking is addictive .
Even though you might be motivated to quit and understand the health risks to your baby, you may not find it that easy to quit. The study clearly shows new ways must be found to help pregnant women give up smoking, Dr. Kirkland said. We have to think about ways in which we can encourage and support pregnant women to quit smoking without making them feel increasingly guilty, increasingly isolated and increasingly defensive. The number of cigarettes pregnant women smoked did drop slightly, to 12.5 per day at the time of delivery from an average of 15.3 per day before pregnancy. But no scientific studies show that cutting back on the number of cigarettes smoked per day improves the outcome in terms of babies' health.