A proactive smoking cessation intervention in postpartum women.

Objective: to analyse the efficacy of a proactive intervention during the postpartum period to prevent a relapse in recent quitters and to promote progress in the behavioural process of change in smokers.

Design: randomised controlled trial designed for women at the end of the pregnancy using a proactive intervention. Motivational Interviewing (MI) and relapse prevention served as principles for the programme. In the intervention group, four telephone supporting sessions were performed in weeks 3, 6, 9 and 12. For the control group only two check calls in weeks 3 and 12.

Setting: women who attended the University Clinical Hospital 'Lozano Blesa' of Zaragoza (Spain) to give birth between January 2009 and March 2010. The intervention began after delivery, lasted for 3 months, and finished with a visit to validate abstinence biochemically.

Findings: a total of 2,044 women were studied, 30.6% (n=626) smoked before pregnancy; 65.8% (n=412) of them agreed to participate. The results for recent quitters by self-report showed that the probability of remaining abstinent after 12 weeks was 74% for the intervention group and 37% for the control group. Only the half of the sample attended the visit at 3 months to confirm the abstinence biochemically. For smokers, 90.7% of the intervention group said that they would be ready to try to quit in the following 6 months, vs. 18.3% for the control group. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PRACTICE: a proactive intervention in the postpartum period may reduce the probability of relapse in recent quitters and helps female smokers to make progress in the behavioural process of change. Such interventions should be included systematically in mother-child health services.