How to convince pregnant women to quit smoking? It is a major public health issue when we know the damage of tobacco on the future baby: neonatal mortality, risk of prematurity and lifelong metabolic complications …. Problem: today in New Aquitaine 20% of pregnant women are smokers.
The Arcachon hospital center tested a new quit program called 5A-Quit-N. Since 2019, all the health actors who intervene around pregnancy in Arcachon, Gujan-Mestras, La Teste-de-Buch and Le Teich have been made aware. At each appointment, their mission is to suggest that pregnant women quit smoking.
At the CH d’Arcachon a nurse has been recruited to provide follow-up. And it works: this prevention program has reduced the number of pregnant women who smoke by 25%. “What we tested in Arcachon we will implement in the 44 maternity wards of New Aquitaine within 3 years” explains François Alla, public health doctor at the Bordeaux University Hospital.