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Press Release
PREGNETS.ORG
New Website to help Pregnant and Postpartum Women Stop Smoking
For Immediate Release, January 23, 2003 (Toronto):
Up to one-quarter of pregnant women in Ontario smoke. The first website
providing support for these women and those who are postpartum and their
health providers was launched today by PREGNETS, a coalition of groups
dedicated to preventing gestational and neonatal exposure to tobacco smoke.
The website can be found at http://www.pregnets.org.
"Smoking during pregnancy has serious harmful effects on the woman,
the fetus and the child. Unfortunately, pregnant women don't often get
the information that they need to help them to stop. Sometimes mothers
do not want to talk to their health providers about their smoking due
to the stigma. This website will assist women to access smoking cessation
resources in their community and provide confidential assistance,"
says Peter Selby, the project leader and head of the Centre for Addiction
and Mental Health's Nicotine Dependence Clinic and Assistant Professor,
Departments of Family and Community Medicine and Psychiatry, University
of Toronto.
The effects of smoking during pregnancy include an increased risk of
spontaneous abortion, lower birth weight and difficulty feeding. Children
who are exposed to second hand smoke have an increased risk of having
SIDS and of developing asthma, allergies, bronchitis and learning disabilities.
In addition to the website, over the next two years, PREGNETS will train
existing smoking cessation resource centres including the Smoker's Helpline
and Motherisk at the Hospital For Sick Children to provide assistance
to pregnant and postpartum mothers. A one-page reference tool will also
be developed for health care providers, including family physicians, outlining
the harmful effects of smoking on the woman, fetus and child and how to
deliver brief cessation interventions to their clients.
PREGNETS includes representatives from the following agencies: Best Start
Resource Centre, Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health, Clinical Tobacco Interventions, Motherisk (Hospital for
Sick Children), Program Training and Consultation Centre, Smokers' Helpline,
St. Joseph's Health Centre, and Toronto Public Health.
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) is a Pan American Health
Organization and World Health Organization Collaborating Centre and a
teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto.
Financial contribution for the PREGNETS project was provided
by the Tobacco Control Programme, Health Canada.
For a fact sheet on smoking, pregnancy and childbirth, please
check out the CAMH website at www.camh.net/press_releases/smoking_women_facts.html.
For further information, please contact Anne Ptasznik, Media
Relations Coordinator, at 416-595-6015.
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