Patient Information: Smoking

Cessation Support

Smoking Cessation Support Options

The Obstetric Clinic is encouraging smoke-free families so that children can have the best possible chance to grow up healthy.

It is important to quit as soon as possible!  Several smoking cessation options listed below are available to pregnant women.  Your doctor will prescribe the best method to you.

1.     Cold Turkey – You simply stop smoking cigarettes.

2.     Nicotine Fading – You are taught how to reduce the nicotine level of cigarettes smoked by 30/60/90 percent over a three week period.  During the fourth week, you stop smoking completely.  Your nurse will teach you the nicotine fading procedure.

3.     Nicotine Skin Patch – The skin patch releases nicotine through the skin and into your bloodstream.  Your doctor will prescribe the patch for you.

4.     Oral Medication – A medication called Zyban (bupropion HCL SR 150 mg) helps to reduce the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine.

If you or a loved one has tried to quit smoking, chances are public health has played a role in the process.  The Iowa Department of Public Health Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control (TUPC) protects and promotes the health of all Iowans.

Smoking is responsible for the death of more than 4,600 Iowans each year.  It is the single most preventable cause of death and disease.  More Americans die from smoking each year than from AIDS, alcohol, motor vehicle accidents, homicide, other drugs, and suicide combined.

Iowans who wish to quit smoking may access Quitline Iowa, the statewide toll-free smoking-cessation hotline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) and the TDD line is 1-888-229-2182.

This service is available 8 AM to midnight, seven days a week, with counseling available in most languages, including English and Spanish. 

If a smoker is not ready to call, Quitline Iowa provides resources through its Web site at www.quitlineiowa.org.

Web site users can use the smoking cost calculator to see the impact their habit has on their wallet, request information to be received by mail, download materials to use on their own and e-mail questions to a Quitline Iowa counselor through the Ask-A-Counselor feature.

In addition to working with Quitline Iowa, TUPC works with 64 community partnerships across the state to prevent tobacco use among young people and adults, and to work on reducing everyone’s exposure to secondhand smoke in all 99 counties.

Peer Review Status: Internally
Peer Review Date: 2004