10-12% of pregnant women are smokers and many pregnant smokers may suffer from depression. Smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage, premature birth, low birth-weight babies, death from SIDS and learning behaviour disorders.
20% of American adults (45 million) smoke. 30% of smokers had a mental health disorder indicating the role of psychological counselling in managing these pregnant smokers. Most of these women suffered from depression. Smokers were about 3 times as likely to have a mental health disorder as pregnant non-smokers. Nicotine and other chemicals in cigarette smoke can act in the brain like weak antidepressants.
Image courtesy: Quit smoking hub.
According to a research study done by a Colombian University epidemiologist, 22% women smoked at some point during pregnancy and 12% of pregnant women are nicotine dependant. This research was done on 1,500 pregnant women in New York.
Pregnant smokers were typically poor; less educated and had less access to health care.
How to manage pregnant smokers?
1. “Quit for your baby” is the motivational message for every pregnant smoking woman.
2. There should be more mental health screenings in the prenatal checkups.
3. Poor inner-city women are high risk group. 50% of these women suffer from depression.
4. Intensive psychological therapy is needed to make them to quit smoking.
5. Antidepressants are generally used in severe cases of depression.
6. Nicotine patches have no proven role in treating this depression.
Enter Texas’ Project Baby Steps. More than 250 pregnant smokers are testing whether a form of cognitive therapy for depression helps them kick the habit better than anti-smoking counselling alone.
More than one in 10 pregnant women smoke, and new research suggests many of them also may suffer from depression, making kicking the habit even harder.
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