Smoking in pregnancy--a health education problem.

The smoking habits and knowledge and demographic characteristics of 380 pregnant patients in Belfast were investigated. Over half of the women smoked but only 11.5% stopped smoking after becoming pregnant in spite of the fact that almost 65% of them knew that smoking could have an effect on the baby. The study showed that some smokers changed their attitude to smoking before and after delivery and that little effort is being made by general practitioners to dissuade their antenatal patients from smoking. More emphasis on health education for school children is required and also more individual effort on the part of health professionals to dissuade women from smoking, especially when they are pregnant.