Tobacco and pregnancy

Topic Editor: Lauren S. Wakschlag, PhD, Northwestern University, USA

Prenatal cigarette smoke exposure (PCSE) is the leading preventable cause of several negative birth outcomes, and affects 600,000 live births in North America every year. Although more and more women quit when they find out they are pregnant, 10 to 15% continue to smoke. It is estimated that of those who ceased to smoke during pregnancy, most will start again after giving birth. The incidence of smoking during pregnancy has been dropping in the last two decades but remains high particularly among adolescent and low-income women. Eradicating PCSE would allow health care systems to save millions of dollars in neonatal costs.

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• What do we know?
• What can be done?
• According to experts
• Key messages