Smoking during pregnancy poses serious risks to both the mother’s health and the developing fetus. It increases the likelihood of miscarriage, premature birth, and low birth weight, and may also have long-term effects on the child’s health. Despite these risks, many women find it difficult to quit smoking, and adequate support is essential for successful cessation. Using data from the Cohort ’18 study, we examined the role of prenatal care and health visitors in supporting smoking cessation during pregnancy.

The research investigated mothers’ smoking habits across four perinatal periods — before, during, and after pregnancy. Hungarian data show that 46% of mothers did not smoke at all, either before or after pregnancy. Thirty-one percent quit smoking before becoming pregnant, while 6.4% gave up smoking after the first trimester. However, 14.4% of pregnant women continued to smoke throughout their pregnancy.

According to the analysis on smoking cessation during pregnancy, mothers who entered prenatal care earlier were more likely to quit smoking by the second or third trimester than those who began prenatal care later. Smoking rates were also found to be influenced by overlapping social disadvantages. Women from disadvantaged backgrounds — those with lower levels of education or more difficult financial circumstances — were both more likely to smoke and to begin prenatal care later, resulting in the lowest cessation rates among them.

Therefore, encouraging early prenatal care is crucial — not only for medical examinations but also because it can provide significant support for vulnerable groups of expectant mothers, for example, in helping them to quit smoking.

The full article is available here:

Veroszta, Z., Boros, J., & Horváth, Á. (2025). Perinatal Smoking Cessation and the Role of Antenatal Care. Substance Use & Misuse, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2025.2569793