Best practices in perinatal smoking cessation: A client driven evaluation of the Mom's Quit Connection program

Late in 2001, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services Department of Maternal and Child Health awarded funding to the Southern NJ Perinatal Cooperative to develop and implement a perinatal smoking pilot program in Southern NJ. The goal of the program was to reduce smoking among pregnant women, and parents and caregivers of young children in the southern NJ region and then roll out the program statewide. The program components included prenatal provider referral to individual and group counseling, provider education and community education and outreach.

In the fifth year of Mom's Quit Connection (MQC), an extensive telephone survey was developed to evaluate program effectiveness by women who had been referred to the program and chose to participate and women who chose not to participate. Specific components evaluated included providers use of the 5 A's brief intervention model, smoking behavior during pregnancy, current smoking behavior and client opinion of the cessation services and reasons why clients chose not to participate.

Results demonstrated that MQC case management clients were heavier smokers than their non participant counterparts yet reported similar rates of quitting(28% for program participants and 30% for non participants) The survey also demonstrated a positive relationship between providers who more frequently used the 5 A's when counseling pregnant smokers and clients who went on to seek additional cessation intervention. Survey results were very positive and hold clear suggestions for the future,