Pregnancy, ultrasound screening and smoking attitudes

This questionnaire study was performed to evaluate screening as a tool to help reduce smoking among pregnant women and their partners. Three hundred women and their partners coming for ultrasound screening were asked to participate. Twenty-two percent of the women and 21% of the men were smoking regularly before pregnancy. Fifty-four percent of the women changed their smoking habits after knowledge of the pregnancy and before the scan. The corresponding figure for men was 19%. Before the scan 54% of the women and 49% of the men estimated their ability to stop smoking later in pregnancy as higher than 50%. The scan itself did not increase this figure. Among women with high consumption of cigarettes, the estimated ability to stop smoking was low.