Northwestern Medicine has recently released a study suggesting that pregnant smokers reduce their smoking by an average of one cigarette a day before they are aware of the pregnancy.

Smokers reduced by a further four cigarettes a day once they learned they were pregnant.

The study’s lead author, Dr Suena Huang Massey, said to EurekaAlert!, “Our findings suggest that pregnancy could curb smokers' desire to smoke before they are even aware of having conceived.

“While recognition of pregnancy is a common motivation to reduce or quit smoking, if biological processes in early pregnancy are also involved as suggested by this study, identifying precisely what these processes are can lead to the development of new smoking-cessation medications.”

Previous studies have established a link to between reduced smoking and pregnancy, but no study has ever determined when this reduction begins.

“Before this paper, it was largely assumed that the only thing causing pregnant smokers to cut down was a desire to protect the baby,” Suena said. “While our study does support the discovery of pregnancy as a salient event, levels of pregnancy smoking began to decline before smokers suspected they were pregnant."

Scientists believe that pregnancy hormones could be a contributing factor.

"Strikingly, we observed the steepest declines in smoking precisely when hCG (Human chorionic gonadotropin) levels typically peak— between five and 10 weeks of pregnancy,” Suena explained. "What's more, pregnant smokers who do not quit during the first trimester (when hCG levels are elevated) are unlikely to quit before delivery, even with assistance from medications or financial incentives.”

Read the study here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/adb.13245

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