Pregnant smokers studied
More than one in 10 pregnant women smoke, and new research suggests many of them also may suffer from depression, making kicking the habit even harder.
The emerging science suggests that decades-old "quit for your baby" messages are too simplistic an approach for many women — and that perhaps prenatal checkups should include screening pregnant smokers for mental health disorders that themselves require care.
"These ladies all know, I promise you, about the health risks. That’s not what it is," says Dr. Jan Blalock of the University of Texas M.D Anderson Cancer Center, which has begun a first-of-a-kind study, Project Baby Steps, to test whether non-drug depression therapy helps pregnant smokers quit.
"We should at least understand more about why these ladies don’t quit. We should be looking more carefully instead of just saying, ’Whoop, got this group of hard-core smokers."’
