Discover the various quit smoking treatment methods available for women who smoke.

1. Treatment Options for
Pregnant Who Smoke
By
http://2stopsmokingtips.com

2. Introduction
• It’s no longer news that smoking during pregnancy is
harmful to both mother and child. It ‘s also not news that
the number of women who smoke during pregnancy is
on the rise.
• According to
the National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit,
“12 to 20 percent of women smoke during pregnancy,
putting mothers and babies at risk for complications such
as premature birth, low birth weight, or miscarriage.” It
goes on to say that over a thousand babies die every
year in the United States of America because their
mothers smoked cigarettes during pregnancy.

3. Pregnant Women Smoking on the
Rise
• In the same vein, a July 2009 Kids Count report
reveals that the percentage of women who
smoked while pregnant rose from 18.3% in 2003
to 20% in 2007. The findings were collected by
the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
• In yet another report,
the 2008 Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitorin
data from 29 states in the U.S. reveals that
• close to 13% of women confessed to smoking
during the last 3 months of pregnancy.

4. Pregnant Women Smoking on the
Rise(2)
• 45% of women who smoked cigarettes 3 months before
pregnancy quit during pregnancy. Sadly,50% of the
women who stopped smoking during pregnancy went
back to cigarettes within 6 months of giving birth.
• Interestingly, smoking remains the single most
preventable cause of adverse pregnancy and birth
outcomes in the U.S. The Western Journal of Medicine
says it accounts for 20% of children born with low birth
weights, 8% of premature births, and 5% of all postnatal
deaths.
• To make matters worse, new studies have discovered
that smoking during pregnancy brings about sudden
infant death syndrome (SIDS) as well as vital alterations
in fetal brain and nervous system development.

5. Pregnant Women Must Quit Fast
• Due to these dangers, pregnant women have to
quit smoking fast. But how can they quit? What
treatment options are available to them? How safe are
these treatment options for mother and child?
• One of the treatment options is
nicotine replacement therapies but a research this year
says it might no longer be effective for pregnant smokers
.
• The study, which appears in the March 1,2012 issue of
The New England Journal of Medicine, is said to be the
largest clinical trial ever to examine the use of nicotine
patches during pregnancy. It reportedly found little
evidence that the treatment helps pregnant women drop
off cigarettes.

6. NRT not Safe for Pregnant Women
• The research team, led by Tim Coleman, MD, of
the University of Nottingham in the UK,
concluded that standard-dose nicotine
replacement therapy is not a useful strategy for
helping pregnant women achieve non-smoking
status. The team also mentioned that it’s not
clear if nicotine replacement is totally safe for
pregnant women so it shouldn’t be
recommended to women who are pregnant. The
study examined the efficacy and safety of
nicotine patches during pregnancy.

7. Treatment Methods for Pregnant
Women
• One thing pregnant women should do is to get support
and advice about quitting from qualified medical
personnel. Evidence shows that counseling by qualified
health professionals can double quit rates for pregnant
women.
• According to a Cochrane Summary, “interventions
offered to promote smoking cessation in pregnancy are
generally given individually and include cognitive
behaviour and motivational interviewing; offering
incentives; interventions based on stages of change;
giving feedback to the mothers on fetal health status or
nicotine by-products measurements; nicotine
replacement therapy, bupropion or other medications.”

8. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a psychiatric technique
that combines two approaches; cognitive and behavior
therapies. Generally considered a short-term form of
psychotherapy,it concentrates on singling out negative
thoughts and developing new ways of thinking about
situations. For pregnant women who want to stop
smoking, cognitive behavior therapy may be the way out.
Suffice to say, behavioral therapy has been shown to be
an effective stop smoking strategy and experts advise
pregnant smokers to seek out quality behavioral
treatments to help them kick the habit.

9. Motivational Interviewing
• Motivational Interviewing is a guiding
patient-centred style of counselling,
fashioned to help people to resolve
ambivalence about behaviour change. It
was developed as a treatment for alcohol
abuse, but can help smokers to make a
successful quit attempt. It has evolved and
been refined since its original publication
as an approach to behavior change.

10. Effectiveness of Motivational
Interviewing
• To ascertain the effectiveness of
motivational interviewing on stop smoking in pregnant women
, an intervention study was conducted between
December 2007 and June 2008. 38 pregnant and
educated women who were smoking a minimum of one
cigarette per day and had not reached their 4th month of
pregnancy participated in the research at the prenatal
unit of a public hospital. A total of 8 home visits was
made for each participating woman with 12- to 13-day
intervals between visits; 5 visits were for intervention,
with 3 follow-up visits at 1-month intervals.

11. Effectiveness of Motivational
Interviewing(2)
• The study was hugely successful as a total of
39.5% of pregnant smokers dropped off
cigarettes; a further 44.7% decreased their
smoking by 60% from their starting rate. The
rate of second-hand smoking before the
intervention (86.8%) reduced to 55.3%.
• The study concluded that similar programs by
nurses and midwives working in primary health
care and antenatal settings should be developed
and applied.

12. Offering Incentives
• Offering incentives like cash, free classes and
medical insurance discounts has been
successfully used by companies to prompt
employees to quit smoking. Pregnant women
have also warmed up to the idea according to
this Cochrane Summary.
• Stop smoking aids like Zyban, Chantix and
NRTs were not mentioned because their safety
for use by pregnant women has not been
established.

13. NRTs not Safe for Pregnant
Women
• At present, there are few safety and
efficacy studies on the use of NRT with
pregnant women. In 1991, Neal L.
Benowitz, MD concluded that the benefits
of NRT in helping
patients quit during pregnancy outweighed
the risk of smoking for many patients who
cannot stop after the provision of
behavioral therapy. Read more about
stop smoking medication for pregnant women
.

14. Quit Smoking Tips for Pregnant
Women
• Having said the above, I want to say that pregnant
smokers who want to quit should do the following:
• Involve their doctors every step of the way. Their advice
and support is invaluable to the quitting process. Plus,
they will be on hand to handle any side effects that may
arise during the quit procedure.
• Stay busy and get moderate exercise to rid their mind of
cravings.
• Chose a “quit day” and throw out all cigarettes, lighters,
and ashtrays on that date. Make sure you plan how to
cope with the side effects before your “quit day” arrives.

15. Quit Smoking Tips for Pregnant
Women(2)
• Avoid places, events and activities connected
with smoking. If your partner smokes, encourage
him to quit at the same time. It will be beneficial
to both of you and the baby.
• Ask a friend or partner for help, and talk to them
when you feel like smoking. You can also make
such a friend, your accountability partner.
• Each craving lasts a few minutes. Use the 5Ds –
delay smoking, deep breathe, drink water, ditch
stressful situations and do something else.

16. Frequently Asked Questions About
Quitting When You are Pregnant
Q: When should I quit smoking as a pregnant woman?
A: Quit the very moment you discover you are pregnant.
Q: Am already four months gone, what’s the point of
quitting now? The damage is already done.
A: Most of the baby’s growth happens later in pregnancy,
so, it is never too late to quit. For instance, if you quit
today, your risk of having a low-weight or pre-term baby
will be similar to that of a woman who has never smoked
before. Quitting at any period during pregnancy brings
down the risk of harm to your baby. However, planning
to quit as early as you can means a better start to life for
your baby.

17. Frequently Asked Questions About
Quitting When You are Pregnant(2)
• Q: What if I find smoking irresistible and slip
while trying to quit?
• A: For starters, don’t try to quit; just quit and if
you slip and smoke a cigarette, don’t allow that
to make you abandon your quit attempt. A slip-
up is a temporary setback, not a failure.
• Q: Can I use medication to quit?
• A: Involve your doctor in every quitting decision
you make. His advice would be invaluable at this
period.

18. Conclusion
• Successful quit smoking during pregnancy
requires the right information and attitude.
Discover how to quit permanently using
the best stop smoking book of all time.
• Read more about
the effects of smoking during pregnancy.

19. Thanks for Reading!!!
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