Smoking and Pregnancy Intervention

In 2000, a panel of health professionals reviewed over 6,000 tobacco articles to determine what an effective smoking strategy for women look like. While the panel recommended a model known as the 5-A Method, the model was originally developed for men. Because the 2001 Surgeon General's report on women and smoking revealed that there were no established and gender specific differences in effective smoking cessation, this model is considered the most effective to date. The 5-A Method is a five step program adapted from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse 4 step model. The five As stand for ask, advise, assess, assist and arrang-followup.

Ask, is to ask the client if she smoke or have been a former smoker; Advise, is to advise the client to quit smoking because of the health threat to the infant as well as the mother; Assess, is to assess the client willingness to quit smoking within 30 days; Assist, is to assist client with ways to stop smoking by identifying smoking triggers and healthier alternatives, and lastly, arrange followup, which is to monitor progress, give support and observe the mother's smoking status.