title: Smoking cessation intervention: the practices of maternity care providers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is known about the actual smoking intervention practices of maternity care providers. This study examines smoking intervention practices of maternity care providers in a large Midwestern city.
  
  
  METHODS
  A telephone survey was used to collect information on the care of pregnant patients who smoke (n = 73).
  
  
  RESULTS
  After brief counseling during the first prenatal care visit (98 percent), 84 percent of providers readdressed smoking at follow-up visits. Family physicians were significantly more likely than obstetricians to provide further counseling (97 versus 72 percent, P < 0.005). Common cessation interventions included provider counseling (99 percent) and recommending smoking cessation classes (26 percent). Reasons cited by providers for patients' inability to stop smoking during pregnancy included addiction, habit, and environment or family. Methods used to encourage smoking cessation did not correlate with those known to be effective for treating addiction, modifying behavior, or responding to family or social system problems.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Maternity care providers underutilize effective methods of smoking cessation for their patients who smoke and rely on less effective methods.
authors.affiliation: Columbia Family Practice Residency, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee 53212, USA.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Helwig
authors.forename: G R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Swain
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gottlieb
mesh_terms: D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009721:Nurse Midwives; D009774:Obstetrics; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D011247:Pregnancy; D011295:Prenatal Care; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D014922:Wisconsin