A second group also got three telephone counseling calls before giving birth. We got the best results by continuing intervention after the baby was born. But while postpartum contact delayed relapse back to smoking habits, it didn't prevent relapse entirely. Six months after giving birth, the group of women who got the most attention were less likely to be smoking than the other two groups, but by a year all three groups had similar smoking rates. Besides cigarettes' link to diseases like lung cancer and emphysema, there are known risks during pregnancy.
Pregnant smokers are more likely to have low birth weight babies and complications during birth.
Their babies are at higher risk for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and nicotine is passed to the baby in breast milk. Young children exposed to second-hand smoke have more upper respiratory infections. Other groups of smokers who stay off cigarettes for 10 months are home free, but that's not true for pregnant women. One of the major predictors of relapse is living with another smoker, so McBride is enlisting women's partners for help in a new study based at Ft. She hopes this intervention will both prevent partners from smoking and give cessation support that will stick around.