Weight concerns are linked to postpartum smoking

A majority of women, who immediately depart from smoking during pregnancy, knowing the habit is unhealthy for their unborn infant, frequently lure back to the habit after birth, a new research from the University of Pittsburgh, in the US, shows, portraying fears of gaining weight as a major cause behind the decision.

The study, which will appear in the October issue of the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, showed that most women will give up smoking when they will discover their pregnancy but 60 to 70 per cent will light up again after the birth of child and majority of women are more concerned about their weight than those who intend to kick the habit for good.

Michele Levine, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and lead researcher of the study said, “Thinking about weight is important in understanding women's smoking after pregnancy.”

Emphasizing on the means which could prevent women from adopting the smoke habit after baby birth, Levine said, “Women are complex creatures. More than just whether they are going to breast-feed the baby, or are addicted to nicotine, or are addicted to alcohol, healthcare providers need to think about psychological issues like weight worries.”

The researchers already know that depression and weight issues lead to significant health concerns among women. To understand how these elements might affect women's motivations to smoke after delivery, Levine along with his fellow researchers conducted a research on 119 women who had smoked at least eight cigarettes per day for a month before pregnancy but quit as soon as they came to know that they were having a child.

During the women's third trimester of pregnancy, researchers questioned them whether they intended to resume smoking after the birth. After studying the response data, the researchers discovered that 65% of the women were highly motivated not to smoke again, with 74% of that group confident they would be able to stand firm with their plan.

The other 35 percent, who were less motivated to remain smoke-free after giving birth, were more concerned about managing weight than those who were determined to give up cigarettes for good.

"Our results indicate that weight issues play a role in a woman's motivation to remain smoke-free after pregnancy," the lead researcher said.

This is widely known that exposure to smoke, either before or after birth, has been linked to sudden infant death syndrome, ear infections, respiratory illness and asthma. And, what surprised the researchers was the link between weight concerns and desire to remain abstinent. Compared to less-motivated women, “Motivated women were more likely to say they could control their weight without smoking and less likely to say they used smoking to control their weight,” Levine said.

Telling about the reasons why most of the women who quit smoke during their pregnancy can not remain smoke free after the baby’s birth, Dr. Sharon Phelan, a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said, “The irony is, after they have the baby there is not that external support," adding that "Friends don't understand why they won't join in for a cigarette, and the father of the baby, who was supportive during the pregnancy, no longer is. That makes it hard for a woman to stay smoke-free.”

The US researchers said their next step is to see if weight concerns play a role in women's actual behaviour, beyond motivation.