There are many reviews of current knowledge about smoking cessation in gene
ral within the health service, which also contain guidelines about smoking
cessation during pregnancy. Our aim was to review methods in child healthca
re for preventing the exposure of children to tobacco smoke. Since passive
smoking starts during pregnancy, we also considered methods in antenatal ca
re. We did a search for relevant articles, especially on randomized, contro
lled trials, in various databases, chiefly Medline. We mainly analysed stud
ies from the last 10 y, concentrating on the actual interventions. In anten
atal care the greatest effect comes from interventions based on behavioural
strategies. These can lead to a doubling of the number of women who stop s
moking during pregnancy. Purely factual information, on the other hand, has
no great effect.
The studies in child healthcare analysed here show that decisive factors fo
r children not being exposed to passive smoking are a concentration on stre
ngthening the parents'; faith in their ability to create a smoke-free envir
onment, and on behavioural strategies to achieve this goal, but not primari
ly on getting the parents to stop smoking. However, We need further studies
of different types of interventions, geared to smokers with Small children
, before more specific recommendations can be given as to how child healthc
are should design its tobacco-preventive work.