Prenatal weight gain following smoking cessation

Relationships between prenatal smoking cessation, gestational weight gain and maternal lifestyle characteristics

“…This finding is consistent with other studies, 6,8 but not all. 23 In the latter study, 23 smoking cessation doubled the risk of gaining excess weight, but the association was no longer significant after adjustment for dietary factors.…”

“…1,6 There is evidence that any reduction in smoking habits has the potential to result in additional weight gain. 6,24 Thereby, this finding might reflect the decrease in numbers of cigarettes smoked during pregnancy, especially among heavy smokers, and inclusion of women who either tried to quit smoking in early gestation, but relapsed or quit smoking at advanced stage of pregnancy. 25 Stratifying the analysis according to the time of quitting (early versus late pregnancy) was not possible, due to the few number of women included in these groups.…”

“…Most studies regarding maternal smoking habits have focused on the comparisons between smokers and nonsmokers and only few have considered smoking cessation in their analyses. [6][7][8][9] These studies found that women who quit smoking after conception gained from 1.2 to 3.5 kg more during gestation than continuing smokers. [6][7][8][9] Therefore, maternal weight concerns might be an obstacle of maintaining smoking abstinence over the postpartum period after spontaneous quitting during pregnancy.…”

“…[6][7][8][9] These studies found that women who quit smoking after conception gained from 1.2 to 3.5 kg more during gestation than continuing smokers. [6][7][8][9] Therefore, maternal weight concerns might be an obstacle of maintaining smoking abstinence over the postpartum period after spontaneous quitting during pregnancy. 10,11 Women naturally gain weight during pregnancy, typically 12-14 kg, and most of them gradually lose this weight postpartum.…”

“…16 It is known that gestational weight gain is influenced by numerous lifestyle changes during pregnancy, such as physical activity level, food intake, alcohol consumption and smoking habits. 17,18 Although previous studies have indicated that smoking cessation during pregnancy is a potential predictor of high gestational weight gain, [6][7][8][9] changes in other lifestyle habits during pregnancy were not taken into consideration in the analyses. Women who quit smoking during pregnancy may also adopt other healthy lifestyle measures because of concerns about fetal well-being.…”