SMOKING IN PREGNANCY - A STUDY OF PSYCHOSOCIAL AND REPRODUCTIVE RISK-FACTORS

Smoking during pregnancy is a well-recognized public health problem an d several associated variables to smoking have been identified arch as low socioeconomic status, low educational attainment, low social supp ort, younger age and unplanned pregnancy. The purpose of this research war to further examine possible risk factors associated with smoking in pregnancy. One hundred and nineteen pregnant women who were having their first babies had been recruited in early pregnancy from a Genera l Hospital Obstetric Service and were followed up throughout the pregn ancy and then until 4 years after the birth of the baby. The findings of this longitudinal study study have already been reported in relatio n to maternal postnatal depression and to child development and in the analyses of smoking behavior which are reported here, it war possible to control for several confounding variables in the search for possib le risk factors. Women who smoked during pregnancy were more likely to have had previous miscarriages and terminations and to have taken lon ger to conceive this pregnancy. They were also more likely to report m arital difficulties and more likely to physically discipline their 1-y ear-old infants. These results point to a possible different perspecti ve in trying to understand this intransigent unhealthy behavior.