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Lending an Ear to Pregnancy Dangers
(HealthScoutNews) -- Support
from health-care professionals can play an important role in helping
low-income pregnant women quit drinking and smoking.
That's the claim of a new study in the October issue of the American
Journal of Preventive Medicine.
"The frequent contacts
women have with health professionals during pregnancy may provide
valuable opportunities to discuss alcohol and tobacco use and
encourage behavior changes," says study author Judith K.
Ockene, a professor of medicine and chief of the division of preventive
and behavioral medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical
School. Smoking and alcohol pose health threats to unborn children.
Ockene and her colleagues
studied interviews with 600 pregnant women in the Boston area
who were current smokers or had quit when they learned they were
pregnant. They were receiving prenatal care from a publicly funded
program.
Most of the women were
unmarried and more than 40 percent of them had less than a high
school education.
The study found the women
were more likely (80 percent) to stop drinking than quit smoking
(27 percent) when they learned they were pregnant. Pregnant black
women were less likely than white or Hispanic women to quit smoking.
The women who quit drinking
alcohol when they learned they were pregnant were more likely
to have social support. The study says health professionals can
fill that gap by providing support to women who don't get if from
family and friends.
"It is important
for clinicians to be aware of and acknowledge the difficulties
these women face, and to help them develop motivation and skills
to engage their partners and support systems in their cessation
attempts," Ockene says.
Women who didn't quite
smoking were more likely to be less educated, have a greater addiction
to nicotine, and have a partner who smoked, the study says.
More information
The
American Lung Association has more information on smoking
and pregnancy and the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has more
on alcohol-related problems.
Reference
Source 101
For more information on how to prevent other diseases, use
PreventDisease.com's "Quick
Prevention Resources".
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