By some accounts, in ancient times the word mother meant “giver of life.” Whether the origin of the word is true or not, in today’s society, we do regard mothers as givers of life, protectors and caregivers. And, as we prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day, we honor moms and the critical role that they play in the lives of their children.
Mother’s Day is also a time to reflect on the responsibilities that moms have to protect and care for their children to ensure they have safe and healthy lives. One of the ways moms can best protect their children is to quit smoking while pregnant. Unfortunately, the number of mothers who continue to smoke while pregnant puts their newborn babies at risk. It is the leading cause of premature birth and low infant birth weight and Wisconsin Medicaid records show that up to $135,000 per infant during the first six months of medical costs associated with very low birth weight.
This Mother’s Day, there is good news for women who are expecting a baby and who want to quit smoking. Thanks to a longstanding partnership between the Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, pregnant women in southeastern Wisconsin may be eligible to participate in a new project that helps women quit smoking while pregnant, and gives new mothers the support they need after delivery to become better protectors of their newborns.
Consider these statistics: According to the 2010 City of Milwaukee Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) Report, 38 percent of stillbirth disparities and 31 percent of infant death disparities, were contributed to smoking during pregnancy.
Of all the babies who die of any cause in Milwaukee, 27 percent of the mothers smoked and many more were exposed to secondhand smoke. In addition, of all the babies who die in their sleep, 43 percent had mothers who smoked, and 65% were exposed to secondhand smoke.
And before we point fingers at mom, can we agree that research has shown that using cigarettes and tobacco products are addictive? Try as they may, many moms—even when they know their unborn child’s health is at stake—cannot quit smoking on their own.
Enter the First Breath program, which helps pregnant women in Wisconsin quit smoking by integrating cessation strategies into existing prenatal care, including health care clinic appointments.
The goals of this program are to increase the number of pregnant women who quit smoking, reduce smoking among pregnant women who are not able to quit, improve the health of newborns, and decrease the rate of relapse among mothers after they deliver.
Proof of the merits of the First Breath program lies in the fact that since its inception as a pilot program in 2001, more than 10,000 women have enrolled in the program, resulting in considerable savings in costs to the health care system.
On average 34 percent of First Breath participants have quit smoking during pregnancy. Moreover, up to $1400 is saved per pregnancy for each pregnant mother who quits smoking and for every $1 spent providing counseling and services to help pregnant women quit smoking, $6 are saved in health care costs.
This program has become a national model, sharing strategies at conferences across the country and being featured by the National Partnership to Help Pregnant Smokers Quit.
Mothers are protectors and most of them exhibit and embrace the natural maternal instinct to care about the health of their children. But, realistically, sometimes it takes the community and its resources to give them the armor that they need to fight for the health and well-being of their children. Rather than point blaming fingers at moms who smoke or ostracize them, First Breath is proactively addressing the problem and having great success.
Thanks to the Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation’s First Breath program, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, many moms in Wisconsin will have healthy, happy babies and a Happy Mothers’ Day!
Hillary Whitehorse
Program Manager, First Breath and My Baby & Me
Wisconsin Women’s Health Foundation
2503 Todd Drive,
Madison, WI 53713
608-251-1675 ext.112
