Background: Tobacco smoking is the most important preventable cause of many adverse pregnancy outcomes. Some women continue to smoke during pregnancy although the harmful effects are evident.
Aims: To characterise pregnant smokers and to understand their smoking behaviours and preferences for smoking cessation.
Materials and methods: Pregnant women (≥18 years) attending the antenatal clinics of two large Victorian maternity hospitals completed a prepiloted questionnaire which included items regarding socio-demographics, smoking habits and attitudes towards quitting.
Results: Smoking status was self-reported by 1899 participants; 125 (6.6%) were current smokers and 604 (31.8%) were ex-smokers. There were 87 (69.6%) daily smokers and 38 (30.4%) occasional smokers. Smokers mainly had medium (54; 43.2%) or heavy nicotine dependence (45; 36%). Current smokers were younger, Australian born, not living with a partner, from a lower socio-economic background, multigravida and had a smoker in their household or among friends. Although pregnant smokers were aware of the possible complications of smoking, their motivation and confidence to quit (median) on a 10-point scale were 7 and 4, respectively. The majority of smokers preferred to stop smoking gradually (74; 71.2%). The preferred methods for quitting were medications (49; 47.6%) and hypnotherapy (35; 34.0%). Patches (28; 29.5%) were the preferred dosage form, and nicotine replacement therapy (25; 28.1%) was the preferred medication. Less than half reported that their health professionals discouraged smoking during pregnancy.
Conclusions: Health professionals should be more proactive in identifying smokers and offering smoking cessation support in pregnancy. Multidisciplinary smoking cessation interventions for pregnant smokers are warranted.
Keywords: attitudes; health personnel; pregnancy; smoking; smoking cessation.
© 2013 The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.