Frequency,knowledge and practice of tobacco smoking in pregnant women at out patient department of a tertiary care hospital

Objective: to determine frequency,knowledge,and practice of tobacco smoking in pregnant women visiting outpatient department of liaquat university hospital hyderabad. study design: descriptive observational study. subjects and methods: study carried out at liaquat university hospital hyderabad from 1st dec 2009 to 31st jan 2010. all pregnant ladies visited the outpatient department of obstetric and gynecology for antenatal care with an age range 18-46 years were enrolled for study. semi structured questionnaire consisting various items used to explore the range of knowledge and practice of pregnant women as far as tobacco smoking is concerned. data was analyzed using spss version 16.0. results: a total of 350 pregnant women were included in this study. frequency of tobacco smoking was 60.57% (212). 179(51.14%) women were also using smokeless tobacco along with smoking. only 42 (12%) knew hazards of tobacco consumption.knowledge was high in 27 (7.71%) patients. peer pressure was the reason for commencement of smoking in 234(66.85%) of women and depression in 60(17.14%). conclusion: tobacco consumption is a major health problem in pregnant woman. obstetrician should promote smoking cessation during pregnancy using evidence based methods.