Butt Out for Baby - smoking and pregnancy

1 Project Funding:Department of Human Services (DHS), Tobacco Control Unit. South Australia (SA).Project Auspice:Child and Youth Health (CYH).Peer Consultants:Young Advisory Committee:Representatives from: Peer Consultants for the project Tobacco Control Unit (DHS) Quit SA Dale Street Women s Health Service, Talking Realities Program Nunkuwarrin Yunti Health Services Flinders Medical Centre, Women s Health Centre The Second Story, youth division of CYH, southern regionYoung Parent Groups:Rural, remote and metropolitan and Community Services:Port Pirie Health and Community Services: Drug and Alcohol Services Council (DASC) Child and Youth Health (CYH) Aboriginal Community Health Uniting Care Port Pirie and Central Mission Inc.

2 Port Pirie HospitalThe Women s and Children s Hospital (W&CH)The Second Story (CYH) Young Mothers Programs. Central, Northern, Southern Women s Community Health Service, Community Family Support Downs Health Service Rivskills Berri Lyell McEwin Hospital. Dale Street Women s Health ServiceYoung Women s & Children s Support Services Coalition Design:She Creative Pty LtdACKNOWLEDGEMENTSBUTT OUT FOR BABYKey Points3 Background Information4 Section 1 Young Parents and Health to Accessing Parents, Young People and Drugs7 Section 2 smoking and and During Effects of smoking During of Low Birth Weight, Preterm Delivery andSmall for Gestational Age of smoking During Tobacco Smoke (ETS)12 Section 3 Effective Individual of for Practice Guidelines (Individual Interventions) and Behavioural Stages of Change (Readiness to Change)

3 Motivational Brief for Health Change18 BUTT OUT FOR BABY1 INDEXS ection 4 Young Parents, Health & Community Worker ResourcesGroups Discussions What are the facts about smoking , alcohol and other drugsduring pregnancy ? 20 Conflicting Information21 Support to Quit21 Good things about smoking /not so good things about smoking22 Making Home Environment Smoke Free23 Relapse23 Resources24 References26 BUTT OUT FOR BABY2 INDEXKey points from this resource:1. Knowledge about the Effects of smoking DuringPregnancyYoung parents identified that they required further information and explanation aboutthe potential effects of smoking during pregnancy and the significance of these effectsfor the baby . Increasing young parents knowledge of the effects of smoking may changetheir attitudes and intentions to quit or reduce smoking but not necessarily result in theimmediate cessation of smoking .

4 Increased knowledge is however an essential factor inmaking informed healthy Relationship with Health Services and Health Workers The relationship between the health worker and the young parent is crucial to theoutcome of any intervention. Young parents wanted to be treated with respect andacknowledged for their knowledge, skills and experience. Young parents wanted theopportunity to discuss issues related to their pregnancy and its impact on their lives. Theyalso emphasised the need for antenatal groups to be specific to their age group, as theirissues differ from older Cessation and Young Parent ProgramsSmoking is just one of the issues that may impact on the health outcomes for youngparents and their children.

5 smoking cessation programs are more likely to increase theireffectiveness if integrated with current young parent programs and other social supports(Miller, Wood. 2001).Effective young parent programs have a focus on developing skills and confidence toaccess and interpret health information and make informed choices about their ownhealth and that of their child. Cessation InterventionsThere is considerable evidence to support the use of motivational interviewing or briefintervention as an effective smoking cessation intervention. It can be further supported ifused in combination with personalised self-help material, and telephone support. People who are QuittingChanging smoking behaviour is a process not an event.

6 Any attempts by young parents toreduce their own, or their child s exposure to smoking should be viewed positively, as thisshows an increase in OUT FOR BABY3 KEY POINTSS ummary4 BUTT OUT FOR BABYBUTT OUT FOR BABYI ntroductionBackgroundThe National Tobacco Strategy identifies a number of strategies to reduce tobacco relatedmorbidity and mortality through prevention and cessation interventions, as well asprotecting people from environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). These strategies have beendrawn from the vast body of research and evaluation of individual community programsand government policies focussing on reducing the rates of smoking in of best practice is drawn from these studies to provide guidelines for preventionand cessation of the themes to emerge from these studies is the diminishing cultural acceptance ofsmoking across the population.

7 There are however, communities in which smoking ratesare higher than that of the general population, in particular Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslanders, women who are pregnant, people with mental illness and culturally andlinguistically diverse communities (Anti Tobacco Ministerial Advisory Taskforce 2001).Resource DevelopmentThe Butt Out For baby project was developed in response to the concerns of communityhealth workers (Young Mothers Program, South) of the high rates of smoking amongstyoung parents. The Project utilised a peer education approach that enabled youngparents to take an active role in the development of health promotion resources. Thispartnership approach sought to ensure that the information in this resource is relevantand appropriate to the needs of young parents.

8 The young parents (including youngpregnant women) that participated in this project were generally aware that smokingrepresented a health risk during pregnancy . They however identified several barriers toaccessing adequate information and support in interpreting this information. Review ofthe literature and consultation with a wide range of young parents, service providers alsoinformed us that for health education to be effective the content and methods of deliveryneeds to focus on the development of young peoples skills and confidence, rather thanbeing limited to the transmission of information (Renkert et al 2001).The Butt out for baby booklet for Health WorkersThis booklet is intended to provide health and community workers with information aboutthe effects of smoking during pregnancy , an overview of young parents, young people,drugs and health promotion, and effective smoking cessation interventions.

9 Commentsfrom young parents have been included, conveying their thoughts, attitudes and 4 Young Parents and Health Worker Resources which includes: An illustration of the Readiness to Change model (Stages of Change). Assessing a young parents readiness to change is the first step in smoking cessation interventionand support. Topics for group discussion that emerged from, young parent focus : Reference to young parents/people refers to those aged under 25 OUT FOR BABY5 YOUNG Young Parents and Health PromotionEffective health promotion programs, that target specific community groups, need toacknowledge the social context and developmental stage of the individuals that make up that community and who participate in the can significantly impact on young peoples psychosocial development duringthe time of transition from adolescence to adulthood (Smith et al 1999, Stevenson et al1999).

10 It creates additional stress and conflict for particularly the young women, betweentheir own developmental needs and those of their child. The impact of early parenting,although not uniform across all young parents, can result in compromises for the youngwomen in terms of education, employment and lifestyle. In addition to being pregnant,these young women may also experience social isolation, depression, lack of familysupport and relationship difficulties with their partners, homelessness, domestic violenceand low income (Quinlivan et al 1999, Jolley 2001). pregnancy is a time when young women view their future with optimism and want tomake their pregnancy a positive experience (Quinlivan et al 1999). They are also morelikely to have increased contact with health services, providing opportunities for theseservices to identify psychosocial issues, including smoking and other drug issues.