ABSTRACT
Smoking-related morbidity and mortality affect millions of individuals throughout the world. In the western world, almost a quarter of young women smoke and this affects their risks of developing gynaecological cancers such as cancer of the cervix. It is established that low birthweight for gestation is more common in women who smoke. Cognitive performance is reduced in the children of mothers who smoke during pregnancy, even after adjustment for other confounding variables. There is good evidence that stopping smoking will reduce the adverse effects of smoking in pregnancy, and result in an improvement in birthweight and early birth. It has been reported that women who continue to smoke in spite of knowledge of the detrimental effects are more likely to have problems at work and, in general, are less well supported on a psychosocial basis.
