Tobacco smoking and motivation to change in relation to pregnancy

• Main Authors: Markéta Šídová, Lenka Šťastná
• Format: Article
• Language: ces
• Published: University of Ostrava 2014-12-01
• Series: Psychology and its Contexts
• Subjects: smoking in pregnancy; tobacco smoking; motivation to change
• Online Access: http://psychkont.osu.cz/fulltext/2014/Sidova,Stastna_2014_2.pdf

Pregnancy is a period, which is an opportunity for any change due to its character and effect of the baby-to-be on its mother, including a change in smoking behaviour. A pregnant woman usually wishes that her baby is healthy and smoking is generally known, from professional and daily press, to represent a significant health risk for both a pregnant woman and her unborn baby. Pregnancy offers a motivation shift for many women, which helps them to quit smoking and continue with their abstinence during pregnancy. Pregnancy is the most opportune period and a unique chance for motivation of pregnant women to cease smoking, as most women accept health perspectives of protection of their motherhood. It was discovered that even the fact that the future baby will see its mother smoking motivated women to quit smoking. Methods. Quantitative questionnaire survey. The questionnaire consists of parts dealing with anamnesis, motivation for change of smoking behaviour and Fagerström test of nicotine addiction. The motivation part was inspired by Reasons for Quitting Scale (RFQ). Evaluation took place by means of descriptive statistics and nonparametric statistic tests. Sample. The work analyses two groups of pregnant women - electronic group (collection by means of a web form, N = 96) and clinical group (collection on the Gynaecological-birth Clinic of the 1st Faculty of Medicine and General University Hospital in Prague, N = 40). The groups are divided into 4 subgroups according to the current smoking behaviour of the respondents. Respondents fill in a different extent of the questionnaire according to their current smoking behaviour. Results. Prevalence of smoking in pregnancy is 21 % in the electronic group and a 8 % in the clinical group. All respondents with smoking in their anamnesis made a change in their smoking behaviour related to pregnancy (ceased smoking or limited their smoking). The crucial motive for change of smoking habits in pregnancy is the health of the unborn baby. Motivation of women from various groups of smoking behaviour differs at least in the dimension of internal motivation. A half of women, who keep smoking in pregnancy, show just a little or none physical addiction to nicotine. Discussion. A high difference in prevalence between both study groups can be explained by the size of the groups, which also represents a certain limitation for the study results. The difference may also be caused by the fact that findings related to the electronic group may be burdened by the manner of their collection. A problem related to quitting smoking in pregnancy, the existence of which was confirmed, is continued abstinence after giving birth, when both the motives from the external surroundings and pregnancy-specific motives cease to apply. It might be assumed that women, who do not quit smoking in pregnancy despite its high motivation potential, will not quit smoking, as they are heavily addicted to nicotine and they are not able to quit smoking because of their physical addiction. However, study findings do not support this assumption. A half of the respondents, who did not quit smoking in pregnancy, shows just a little or none physical addiction to nicotine. In these women, the obstacles too difficult to overcome in their efforts to quit smoking are the psychosocial addiction components rather than a physical addiction to nicotine. Conclusion. All respondents with smoking in their anamnesis made a change in their smoking behaviour (ceased smoking or limited their smoking). Therefore, pregnancy really is a period with a strong motivation potential for change of smoking habits of a woman - a mother to be.