Program for Smoking-Free Families in Pregnant, Postpartum Women and their Family

Abstract

The purposes of this literature analysis were to analyze the campaigns encouraging pregnant and postpartum women to quit smoking and to analyze the programs promoting smoking-free families for these women.

Most of the 29 pieces of empirical evidence (34.5%) were ranked level 6.  It was found that 1) the new cases had to be screened and informed how to quit smoking, how smoking could adversely affect them, their babies and their family members as second-hand smokers, and how to seek consultation based on the 5A’s and the 5R principles, motivation techniques, should be applied and the transtheoretical model or stage of change model should be adopted so that they can change their behavior.  In general, the pregnant women quit smoking during their pregnancy and smoke again after the baby was born.  As a result, the campaigns should cover the relapse into smoking after giving birth.  2) The programs promoting smoking-free families for these women could be divided into 3 phases.  The first phase dealt with the period before quitting which could be done by informing the family members about the dangers of smoking, the assessment of nicotine addiction, nicotine withdrawal and the guidelines for quitting smoking. Family members should be empowered to help the smokers quit smoking, The second phase dealt with the period in-between quitting in which the health care personnel would help the family with aggressive follow-up procedures.    The third phase dealt with the period before leaving the program. The nurses have to manage both the positive and negative outcomes of the program. The results obtained from this analysis can be applied to promote a healthy lifestyle for pregnant and postpartum women by:  1) developing clinical guidelines for assisting pregnant and postpartum women to refrain from cigarettes, and 2) developing guidelines for promoting the pregnant and postpartum women’s family members to participate in the smoke-free family programs.