Smoking in pregnancy: A way to cope with excessive workload?

Abstract

Objective: To examine if abstention from smoking in pregnancy increases with opportunities to limit workload. Design: Cross-sectional study based on self-administered questionnaires to women post partum. Setting: All maternity wards in Norway, 16 October-26 November 1989. Subjects: 5438 women, or 87.2% of all parturients in Norway during the study period. Main outcome measure: The abstention fraction (AF) defined as percentage of nonsmokers in pregnancy among prepregnancy daily smokers. Results: The abstention fraction was lower for women with lack of influence on work pace, with hectic work pace, exhaustion after work or work schedules other than daytime, for women with children <16 years of age in the household, and for women in paid work with 20 hours or more of housework weekly, than for women without these conditions. Adjusted odds ratios (OR) for abstention were low for women with children <16 years both when in paid work (OR 0.4) and as housewives (OR 0.3). Women who received extra help with housework had a high abstention fraction (OR 1.6) both when in paid work and as housewives. The abstention fraction was high for women with daytime work (OR 1.5) and low with hectic work pace (OR 0.7), compared with women without these conditions. Conclusion: Abstention from smoking in pregnancy increases with opportunities to limit total workload.