Retrospective study of the association of stress and smoking during pregnancy in rural women

Women who continue to smoke during pregnancy put themselves and their fetuses at serious risk for complications. Various smoking cessation programs have been designed that specifically target pregnant smokers. Longitudinal studies, however, have shown that there is a group of women who are unable to quit smoking while pregnant. Women from a rural area of the Mid-West (N = 299) were interviewed postpartum to determine the stresses these women experienced prenatally and the association of the stress with continuing to smoke during pregnancy. Subjects were divided into three groups: Nonsmokers, Quitters, Smokers. This study not only confirms other reports that these women are more stressed but also documents some of the major stressors. Statistically significant differences were found between groups for financial worries (P=.0002), problems with the family (P < .001), and domestic violence (P < .001). Assessing pregnant women for stress and, especially, domestic violence should be part of the implementation of the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Smoking Cessation. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.