PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - A. McKnight AU - J.D. Merrett TI - Smoking in pregnancy — a health education problem DP - 1986 Apr 01 TA - The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners PG - 161--164 VI - 36 IP - 285 4099 - http://bjgp.org/content/36/285/161.short 4100 - http://bjgp.org/content/36/285/161.full SO - J R Coll Gen Pract1986 Apr 01; 36 AB - The smoking habits and knowledge and demographic characteristics of 380 pregnant patients in Belfast were investigated. Over half of the women smoked but only 11.5% stopped smoking after becoming pregnant in spite of the fact that almost 65% of them knew that smoking could have an effect on the baby. The study showed that some smokers changed their attitude to smoking before and after delivery and that little effort is being made by general practitioners to dissuade their antenatal patients from smoking. More emphasis on health education for school children is required and also more individual effort on the part of health professionals to dissuade women from smoking, especially when they are pregnant.