“When mom’s smoke, they put their unborn child at risk,” said Dr. Rice Leach, Commissioner for the Department for Public Health.  “We have found that many pregnant women and their families don’t realize this so we want to let them know about the risk to their baby and we want to help them to stop smoking.  That will help them have healthier babies.”

According to data from the state’s Office of Vital Statistics, 23.4 percent of Kentucky’s pregnant women smoke.  This is nearly double the national average of 12 percent.

The spots, which began airing Feb. 2, feature a toll-free phone number where smokers can find helpful information about tobacco cessation.  The quitline, 1-877-44U-QUIT (1-877-448-7848), is operated by the National Cancer Institute.  Callers receive free information to help them quit smoking and a contact person and phone number for additional similar services in their local area.

The TV spots were previously used for the Healthy Babies campaign – which encouraged pregnant women not to smoke.

“Quitting can be very difficult, but it is one of the most important things a woman can do for her child,” said Irene Centers, Program Manager for the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program.

Tobacco use can be a life-threatening situation for an unborn baby.  Research indicates that pregnant smokers face an increased risk for stillbirths and spontaneous abortions.

After birth, these children exhibit other health problems, including:

• Low birth rate
• Sudden Infant Death syndrome (SIDS)
• Increased occurrence of diabetes
• Fetal growth retardation
• Developmental difficulties
• Cleft/lip palate
• Numerous childhood cancers 

         The children born of smoking mom’s face the risk of developmental difficulties and medical complications throughout their childhood.  They are more likely to repeat a grade and 50 percent more likely to require special education.

“The fact that smoking imposes such a large negative effect on children who have no choice about their parent’s decision to smoke makes it important that we raise public awareness of these dangers to unborn children,” says Centers.  The Healthy Kentuckians goal is to reduce the number of pregnant women in Kentucky who smoke to 17 percent by 2010.

Babies born to smokers are born addicted to nicotine and experience withdrawal symptoms for the first two weeks of life.  These babies are more irritable, feed poorly, and do not sleep well.  Their dependence on nicotine makes the first days of their lives difficult for them and makes parenting more challenging.

The U.S. Surgeon General has found that when expectant mothers smoke it doubles the chance of an infant being born with low-birth weight, which often requires expensive health care.  Birth complications caused by smoking during pregnancy or pre-natal exposure to secondhand smoke result in as much as $2 billion in additional health care costs in the U.S. each year -- an estimated $8,000 more per delivery.

This campaign is just one of the state’s initiatives to encourage pregnant smokers to quit.  In early 2003, the Provider Toolkit was distributed to physicians across the state with guidelines for providing brief intervention to smokers.  The state Department for Public Health also provides training in “Make Yours A Fresh Start Family” to local health department personnel to provide brief intervention to pregnant women and new moms.

A report recently released by the University of Kentucky’s College of Nursing found no significant change in the percentage of women who smoked during pregnancy from 1997 to 2001.  According to Dr. Ellen J. Hahn, “pregnant women in Kentucky are nearly two times more likely to smoke during pregnancy than women across the U.S.”

The campaign will use $250,000 in funds received from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA).  The MSA is an agreement between the major tobacco companies and the Attorneys General from 46 states.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office on Smoking and Health encourages states to use mass media campaigns to prevent initiation and promote cessation.

For more information and ideas for how to quit smoking, contact the Tobacco Control Coordinator at your local health department.  Programs like Cooper-Clayton combine nicotine replacement therapy with behavioral modification over a 13-week period to help smokers quit.  Your physician can prescribe medications to help you reach your goal.  Nicotine Replacement Therapy  -- patches, gum and lozenges  – also is effective.

            Visit www.lungusa.org/ffs/index.html for a web-based smoking cessation program provided by the American Lung Association. The site is available 24 hours a day – whenever cravings hit. For more information about the Kentucky Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Program, log onto http://chs.ky.gov/publichealth/tobacco.htm or contact Irene Centers at 502-564-7996, extension 3808.

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