Midwives' attitudes to counselling women about their smoking behaviour during pregnancy and postpartum.

OBJECTIVE

to investigate the attitudes of midwives to counselling women about their smoking behaviour during pregnancy and postpartum.

DESIGN

survey using postal questionnaires.

SETTING

the entire federal state of Mecklenburg-West-Pomerania in Germany.

PARTICIPANTS

189 midwives constituting 77% of all midwives working in that State.

FINDINGS

midwives reported that they assessed smoking behaviour regularly (77%), addressed the consequences of smoking (70%) and advised women to quit. Among the midwives, 81% saw low chances of success and parents' expectations as the biggest barriers to counselling. Midwives reported that about 28% of women quit following their advice.

KEY CONCLUSIONS

smoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke are seen as prominent health threats that midwives reported they addressed routinely, including giving advice to stop smoking.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

midwives should be supported in learning effective intervention strategies to further strengthen their work. They are a target population to deliver brief smoking interventions.