TITLE:
The Lived Experience of Smoking in Pregnancy
AUTHORS:
Cynthia L. Murray, Sandra P. Small, Lorraine Burrage
KEYWORDS:
Addiction, Substance Use, Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Lived Experience, Pregnancy, Tobacco Smoking Cessation
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Nursing,
Vol.4 No.11,
October
27,
2014
ABSTRACT: Smoking in pregnancy is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as low birth weight, preterm birth, and perinatal death. Despite widespread public awareness of the deleterious health effects of cigarette smoking, up to a quarter of women in developed countries smoke during their pregnancies. In this hermeneutic phenomenological study, the meaning and experience of smoking in pregnancy were explored. Data were collected through interviews with eight pregnant women from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Four main themes were identified in the participants’ stories, namely living in a smoking world, suddenly finding myself on a moral low road, navigating my own way to a high road, and not preparing for postpartum smoking pitfalls. Smoking was perceived to be salubrious and the participants painted a picture of dealing with smoking in pregnancy as a daunting, lonely endeavor that required life-altering solutions. With a better understanding of what smoking means to pregnant women who smoke, nurses can help these women forge a new and lifelong way to health and wellness.