Pregnancy and the immediate postpartum period are key teachable moments when women are highly motivated to quit smoking. Funding from CDPHE supported a project at SCL Health Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado to evaluate a comprehensive tobacco education, prevention and cessation project in its Women and Family Center, Delivery Unit. The Healthy You, Healthy Baby (HYHB) project used evidence-based practices to decrease tobacco use and sustain a tobacco-free environment for mothers and babies.
Unlike other cessation programs focused on pregnant or perinatal women, HYHB was unique in that it solely targeted postpartum women who had recently given birth in an effort to encourage new quit attempts and prevent relapse among women who successfully quit smoking during pregnancy.
An evaluation of this demonstration project revealed that the HYHB intervention was minimally disruptive to staff and workflows, seen as valuable by both staff and patients, and resulted in long-lasting outcomes for patients and families. The following playbook aims to provide a brief overview of the steps necessary to implement a tobacco cessation intervention in a hospital maternity unit, with particular emphasis on recommendations and lessons learned from the experiences of the HYHB program.
Healthy You, Healthy Baby: Hospital Maternity Unit Tobacco Cessation Intervention Playbook (PDF)