Midwives' attitudes towards pregnant smokers.

Abstract

Midwives are often considered as the prime agents to facilitate smoking behavioral change amongst pregnant mothers, as an intimate relationship is established with their clients. Nonetheless, a considerable amount of women continue to smoke during pregnancy. The main aim of this dissertation was to investigate the attitudes of midwives towards pregnant smokers. A descriptive, non-experimental approach was chosen and all the necessary ethical permissions were obtained prior commencement of the research project. Quantitative data was gathered by means of a structured questionnaire which consisted of close ended questions. Permission to use and to adapt the tool was obtained from the original author and 25 midwives who work with pregnant mothers were recruited by convenience sampling. Results showed that, midwives discussed the consequences of smoking with pregnant mothers and they particularly focused on low birth weight (LBW), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and the risk of worsening the severity of asthma. The findings also suggested that Maltese midwives do actually intervene with pregnant smokers. However, this is a small scale study and participants were recruited from the local Main State hospital. Thus, the results cannot be generalized to the whole population. Finally, recommendations with regards to midwifery education and practice and for future research were put forward.