Midwives’ attitudes to counselling women about their smoking behaviour during pregnancy and postpartum

SummaryObjectiveto investigate the attitudes of midwives to counselling women about their smoking behaviour during pregnancy and postpartum.Designsurvey using postal questionnaires.Settingthe entire federal state of Mecklenburg-West-Pomerania in Germany.Participants189 midwives constituting 77% of all midwives working in that State.Findingsmidwives reported that they assessed smoking behaviour regularly (77%), addressed the consequences of smoking (70%) and advised women to quit. Among the midwives, 81% saw low chances of success and parents’ expectations as the biggest barriers to counselling. Midwives reported that about 28% of women quit following their advice.Key conclusionssmoking and exposure to environmental tobacco smoke are seen as prominent health threats that midwives reported they addressed routinely, including giving advice to stop smoking.Implications for practicemidwives should be supported in learning effective intervention strategies to further strengthen their work. They are a target population to deliver brief smoking interventions.