Smoking partners

Reducing the number of smoking families relies not only on supporting pregnant women and new mums to quit smoking, but their partners too. Partners and dads are an important group to focus on when it comes to smoking cessation because:

• Research shows that when someone else in the home smokes as well, women are six times more likely to smoke throughout pregnancy and, if they manage to quit, are more likely to relapse once the baby is born.
• If a partner makes a quit attempt alongside the expectant mum, it increases her chance of remaining smokefree.
• Exposure to secondhand smoke during pregnancy carries much of the same risks as the expectant mum smoking herself¹.

Reaching men in particular

Becoming a dad (or stepdad) is a significant transition period and can provide a key opportunity to engage fathers in quitting smoking and creating a smokefree home. However, successfully encouraging quit attempts in new or expectant fathers can be challenging:

• A study has shown that some men are more likely to deny or conceal their smoking rather than seek support to quit.
• Men are typically less likely to access healthcare in general than women – especially those in manual or routine occupations who might struggle to take time off work to attend appointments.
• Many interventions designed to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke are targeted towards the pregnant woman herself – and in households with more traditional gender roles, putting the onus on the woman to change their partner’s behaviour can be problematic^2,3.

To reach and engage dads and stepdads, the Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group recommends that smoking is framed as a household responsibility with a family-wide impact, ensuring they are involved in the process from the outset. Social support from peer groups can also be effective in helping dads and stepdads to quit smoking.²

Case Studies of Dads and Partners who have successfully quit

Watch these videos to find out more about their stories and how they managed to quit!

Interactive HCP Conversation Guide For Videos

To provide further learnings and context to these videos, Kenvue has developed this interactive conversation guide for Health Care Proffesionals. The guide has been created to aid consultations with dads (or partners of pregnant women/new mums) about going smokefree – particularly those who have not yet accessed (or considered accessing) specialist stop smoking support.

It contains key insights from each of the dads’ or partners’ quit journeys, alongside important considerations and example questions you could ask them during the consultation.

Practical tips for household members

The best way for a partner or household member to protect the pregnant woman and baby is to quit smoking completely. If, however, they are struggling, they can reduce harm to mother and baby by taking the below steps:

• Only smoke outside.
• Keep an umbrella by the door for bad weather, so that they aren’t tempted to smoke indoors if it’s raining.
• Get rid of anything in the home that reminds them of smoking, such as an ashtray.
• Avoid places that they associate with smoking, such as the pub.

References

[1] National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT). Stopping smoking in pregnancy: A briefing for maternity care providers.
Available at: https://www.ncsct.co.uk/usr/pub/NCSCT%20maternity%20care%20briefing.pdf.
Accessed: February 2024.

[2] Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group. Evidence into Practice: Supporting partners to quit smoking.
Available at: https://ash.org.uk/uploads/Supporting-partners-to-quit-smoking-v1.pdf?v=1648140223.
Accessed: February 2024.

[3] Bottorff J, Oliffe J, Sarbit G, Kelly M, Cloherty A. Men’s Responses to Online Smoking Cessation Resources for New Fathers: The Influence of Masculinities. JMIR Res Protoc. 2015;4(2):e54.