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Smoking Cessation during Pregnancy and Relapse after Childbirth: The Impact of the Grandmother’s Smoking Status

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Abstract

Objectives Smoking during pregnancy can result in negative effects in exposed children. It is well established that the smoking status of husbands is a major predictor of smoking among pregnant women. It was investigated whether the smoking status of the women’s parents and parents-in-law has an impact on smoking cessation during pregnancy and relapse after birth above the smoking status of the husband. Method An initial sample of 458 women and their husbands was assessed prospectively during a 17-month period after birth regarding smoking habits. Five months after birth the women and their husbands reported the smoking status of their own parents. Results Smoking during pregnancy was related to the smoking status of the women’s husband and mother. Women with a husband and mother who smoke were more likely to continue smoking. Relapse after smoking cessation during pregnancy was related to the smoking status of the husband and the mother-in-law. The smoking status of the women’s father and father-in-law was not related to smoking cessation or relapse. Conclusion The smoking status of the pregnant women’s mothers and mothers-in-law is related to fetal and newborn’s nicotine exposure. The findings suggest benefits of taking the smoking status of pregnant women’s mothers and mothers-in-law into account in smoking prevention programs for pregnant women and mothers with infants.

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Fig. 1

Notes

  1. The terms husband, PIL, MIL and FIL (for partner, parents-in-law, mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law of the women) will be used although the marital status of the couple (i.e., the women and her partner) was not addressed.

  2. Seven women indicated that they have not been smoking before pregnancy recognition but smoked 17 months after child birth. They were subsumed to the group of “quitters” assuming that they had been smoking at some time before pregnancy. The results did not change when the analyses were rerun after these cases had been excluded.

  3. The same eight covariates were used in a first run of the multiple regression model as in the logistic regression approach. The only covariate contributing substantively to the prediction of the extent of relapse was maternal age. When maternal age, MIL-smoking and husband-smoking were entered simultaneously to the multiple regression model only husband-smoking remained significant (β = .27, t(51) = 2.11, p < .05) while the contributions of MIL-smoking (β = .20, t(51) = 1.50, p > .10) and maternal age (β = −.21, t(51) = 1.58, p > .10) to the prediction of the extent of relapse were no longer significant.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted within the research project “Substance use and psychosocial risk of mothers in Switzerland” which was supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (SFOPH Decree—No. 03.001623 to Prof. Dr. A. Grob). We thank Daniela Bielinski, Chantal Jaussi, Astrid Marty, and Andrea Pfyffer for their support in this research project, Dr. D. Coall and S. Staub for their invaluable help in reviewing and proofreading the manuscript, and the mothers who participated in the study.

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Correspondence to Sakari Lemola.

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Lemola, S., Grob, A. Smoking Cessation during Pregnancy and Relapse after Childbirth: The Impact of the Grandmother’s Smoking Status. Matern Child Health J 12, 525–533 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-007-0258-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-007-0258-4

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