Australian women’s experiences of smoking, cessation and ‘cutting down’ during pregnancy

ABSTRACT

This article presents an analysis of interviews with Australian women who had smoked or were currently smoking during pregnancy. It explores how they spoke about their experiences of smoking, cessation and harm minimisation during pregnancy. Eighteen women underwent a single in-depth interview, these were analysed using an iterative thematic method. We found that smoking, cessation and harm minimisation by pregnant women are complex social practices. Participants viewed smoking as a potential risk to fetal health and as an actual risk to their own health and described feeling embarrassed and ashamed of smoking when pregnant. Their opinions about the relative seriousness of health risks posed by smoking when pregnant were often informed by their own personal observations and experiences. Participants used this knowledge to engage in lay epidemiological processes as they rationalised and made sense of the relative risks of smoking, quitting or cutting down. They also sought legitimacy for their claims about the safety of quitting or cutting down in two potentially contradictory ways. These were personal experience/observations and medical advice. Our findings contribute to sociological understanding about lay responses to medical advice on smoking in pregnancy and will be of value to healthcare professionals who work with pregnant women.

KEYWORDS:

• Smoking
• pregnancy
• qualitative
• lay epidemiology
• smoking cessation

Acknowledgements

Thank you to the women who allowed us to interview them, Rebekah Brown for her assistance with interviewing and the many people who assisted us with recruitment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Emily C. Hansen http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4733-3411

Mai Frandsen http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7027-1445

Danielle Williams http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5697-1848

Stuart G. Ferguson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7378-3497

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported through funding from Public Health Services in the Tasmanian Department of Health and Human Services.