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Women who smoke during pregnancy have smaller babies on average than non-smokers. They also have more premature births, more miscarriages, more stillbirths and more deaths after birth.
Cost of Smoking to Medicaid
Direct neonatal health care costs attribute to maternal smoking that were paid by Medicaid in 1996 are estimated to be more than $227 million.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2002
Effectiveness of Cessation Interventions
Infants of women who quit smoking by the first trimester have weight and body measurements comparable to infants of nonsmokers.
Source: United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2001)
Prenatal smoking cessation programs have shown to have a protective effect on intrauterine growth retardation.
Source: (Ershoff et al., 1990)
For pregnant women who smoke fewer than 20 cigarettes per day, a brief 5-15 minute counseling session with pregnancy-specific educational materials delivered by a trained provider increases cessation rates.
Source: (Melvin et al., 2000)
Economic Benefits of Prenatal Smoking Cessation Intervention
Earlier studies suggest that every $1 spent on smoking cessation for pregnant women could save about $3 in reduced neonatal intensive care costs.
Source: (Marls et al., 1990, Ershoff et al., 1990).
A single percentage point decline in smoking prevalence among pregnant women would prevent 1,300 cases of low birth weight among babies annually and save $21 million in direct medical costs.
Source: (Lightwood et al., 1999).
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