From Join Together Online:

Many Women Return to Smoking After Pregnancy

1/31/2003

Although more women are quitting smoking during pregnancy, a new study finds that many return to cigarettes during the post-natal period, Health 24 reported Jan. 27.

The study analyzed surveys conducted from 1993 to 1999 involving 115,000 new mothers from 10 U.S. states. The data showed that 51 percent of pregnant women quit smoking in 1999, but half of them resumed smoking within six months of giving birth.

Those more likely to begin smoking again were teenagers and heavy smokers.

Based on the study's findings, author Dr. Gregory Colman of Pace University in New York recommended that doctors encourage women to stay away from cigarettes after their baby is born by emphasizing the dangers of secondhand smoke to infants.

The study is published in the January 2003 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Colman, G., & Joyce, T. (2003) Trends in smoking before, during, and after pregnancy in ten states. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 24(1): 29-35.