A new study finds that barely half of pregnant smokers said their doctors advised them to quit, and while about one in two smokers quit before entering prenatal care, only 5 percent reported quitting after entering prenatal care.

The Health Behavior News Service reported Sept. 9 that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) interviewed 4,473 pregnant New Jersey smokers between 2004 and 2005. "More work is needed to increase the knowledge, promotion and referral of effective cessation programs for pregnant women and, ideally, to prevent young women from ever initiating smoking," said lead author Van Tong.

The good news is that the rate that pregnant smokers quit prior to entering prenatal care was far higher than it was in studies from the 1990s and earlier.

The study appears in the October 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.