A study conducted in Primary Care consultations shows that 80% of women smokers do not quit smoking when they become pregnant.
The study has been carried out in several health centers in the health district of the province of Huelva and has included 244 pregnant women. It has been shown that only 19.54% of women quit smoking when they know their status, a figure that increases to 20.84% in the fourth month of pregnancy.
These data have been presented at the 30th Congress of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFYC), in Valencia, and come to show a worrying way of acting if we consider the risks posed by tobacco for the fetus and future baby and even for the future children of the baby as an adult.
As mentioned, many women reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke, however, 80% is a very high figure for what would be desirable.
Better with support
When analyzing the study data, it was observed that there are more possibilities to quit smoking when the woman has the support of her romantic partner and when she has a high socioeconomic and cultural level, probably, for being more aware of the damage that tobacco can entail for the baby.
Anxiety is no worse than tobacco
As we have said on other occasions, many women continue to smoke because the rumor, or false information, often offered even by health professionals (probably smokers), which says that it is preferable to smoke a cigarette rather than suffer from the stress of Withdrawal
This is not true and that is why it is emphasized that more training and information is needed by health professionals and, above all, that they themselves are not smokers. It is very difficult to try to offer health information and education to someone if the same person does not follow their own advice.
Tobacco causes avoidable risks
Tobacco is a risk factor that increases the chances of premature birth, of babies being born underweight, sudden death of the infant and excessive irritability in the baby the first days and weeks, among other things. As you see, everything mentioned should be enough to completely eliminate tobacco in case of pregnancy, since they are problems that can be serious, however, they are very few, unfortunately, the women who have just left it, as we have seen in the study.
