Abstract

Introduction: Smoking in pregnancy is a serious health problem in our country, as it is in many parts of the world. Since it is widely used, known to be a teratogenic agent and its effects on public health are preventable, nicotine is a substance that must be struggled with. Growing healthy generations is only possible with a healthy pregnancy period and by avoiding known risk factors. In this study, it was aimed to describe the smoking status of pregnant women.

Material and Method: 130 pregnant women who applied to Manisa fifth health center were included in this descriptive study. This study was carried out on women who delivered between 01, October 2006 and 01, November 2006.

Results: It was found that 19.1% of pregnant women were smoking during pregnacy. There was significant difference between the parameters of age, income and city life of pregnant women.

Conclusion: These results show that new plans are necessary to educate pregnant women before and during the pregnancy. In the in-service training programs given to health staff, risks of smoking during pregnancy should be strongly emphasized and pregnant women should also be educated on this issue during pregnancy.