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| Quit Smoking Patch |
Question:
Can the nicotine patch be used by expextant mothers to quit smoking?
Answer:
According to the preliminary results of a small study the nicotine patch, known to be an effective stop-smoking aid, may also be safely used by expectant
mothers.
The nicotine patch seems to be both safe for the fetus and effective
for helping the mother to quit smoking during pregnancy, lead
researcher Dr. Paul Ogburn, Jr. of the State University of New York at
Stony Brook told Reuters Health. He presented his findings Thursday at
the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's annual meeting held in New
Orleans, Louisiana.
However, the study did not evaluate whether exposure to the nicotine
patch in the womb had any long-term effects on the behavior or mental
development of the children.
When women are unable to quit smoking in
pregnancy using willpower alone, nicotine patch therapy, used with
counseling, may be safely recommended to assist them in stopping
smoking
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