4.++History+of+Smoking+and+Pregnancy

=**HISTORY OF SMOKING AND PREGNANCY **=

Smoking while being pregnant is a huge public health concern and can cause many affects on both the mother and the baby. Irregardless, the tobacco industry has a very long history of developing cigarette brands and marketing campaigns that are aimed towards women and young girls. 18% of North American women smoke during pregnancy. (March of Dimes, 2008). In developing countries, only 8% of women smoke during pregnancy (March of Dimes, 2008). If all pregnant women in North America stopped smoking, there would be an estimate of 11% reduction in stillborn deaths and 5% reduction in newborn deaths (March of Dimes, 2008). In the 1900's, smoking during pregnancy and the increased rate of lower respiratory infection in early life was more seriously examined. It was discovered that if a woman smoked during pregnancy, the child's risk of having a serious respiratory tract infection that required hospitalization doubled. Fortunately, the trend to smoke is declining. In Canada, smoking trends were first tracked in 1965 by The Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), which is still being used. Whereas, 50% of Canadians smoked in 1965, 20% of Canadians smoked in 2008 (Health Canada, 2008).