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Health Fact Sheets

Smoking During Pregnancy

More than 20 percent of U.S. women smoke. Many of these women smoke while they are pregnant. This is a major public health problem because, not only can smoking harm a woman’s health, but smoking during pregnancy can lead to pregnancy complications and serious health problems in newborns.

If all pregnant women in the United States stopped smoking, there would be an estimated 11% reduction in stillbirths and a 5% reduction in newborn deaths, according to the U.S. Public Health Service. Currently, at least 11% of women in the United States smoke during pregnancy.

Facts About Smoking and Pregnancy

  • Between 12% and 20% of all pregnant women smoke.
  • Rates of smoking during pregnancy are at least 12 times higher among women with 9 to 11 years of education (25%) than among women who hold a college degree (2%).
  • Smoking during pregnancy has been linked to 10% all infant deaths.
  • Smoking during pregnancy may impair normal fetal brain and nervous system development.
  • The direct medical costs of a complicated birth are 66% higher for smokers than for non-smokers, reflecting the greater severity of complications and the more intensive care that is required.
  • Reducing smoking prevalence by 1% point would prevent 1,300 low birth-weight babies and save $21 million in direct medical costs in the first year. Over a seven year period, this means the prevention of 57,200 low birth-weight babies and savings of $572 million in direct medical costs.
  • Babies whose mothers smoked during their pregnancy are more likely to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome than those whose mothers did not smoke.
  • Women who smoke can have a difficult time becoming pregnant.
  • Parents who smoke make their children more vulnerable to respiratory illness, middle ear infections, and impaired lung function.
  • 27% of U.S. children aged 6 years and under live with a parent or other family member who smokes; the annual direct medical costs associated with this exposure to parental smoking is estimated at $4.6 billion.

Need help to stop smoking?

The Tennessee Department of Health announces the availability of the "Great Start" free full service cessation Quitline for pregnant smokers.

About the Quitline:

  • The Great Start Quitline number is 1-866-66-START. It is available 24 hours a day, with counseling available in both Spanish and English. The Quitline is managed by the American Cancer Society.
  • The Great Start Quitline means that for the first time, any pregnant woman in Tennessee can get help quitting just by picking up a telephone.
  • The Quitline is vitally important because telephone quitlines have been shown to be one of the most successful ways of helping people quit smoking.
  • The "Great Start " QUITLINE provided by the American Legacy Foundation is the first national Quitline that pregnant women can call to receive FREE counseling sessions with a counselor especially trained to help pregnant women quit smoking.

Other websites to assist pregnant women to quit smoking:

National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit

Smoke Free.Gov

4Woman.Gov