There’s no question that smoking is one of the hardest addictions to beat, but if there was ever a good time to quit, it’s during pregnancy, since it’s associated with a wide range of serious health risks for baby, including birth defects, prematurity and low birth weight, stillbirth and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
And yet, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that about one in 14 pregnant women who gave birth in the United States in 2016 smoked cigarettes during her pregnancy.
While that represents just 7.2 percent of all pregnancies?and it’s down from the 10 percent rate that was reported in 2011?some states’ numbers are much higher, while others are well below the average.
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For example, the state of West Virginia topped the list at 25.1 percent of women who say they smoked at any time while they were pregnant, and in California, at the bottom, that number is just 1.6 percent. Other states with the lowest smoking rates include Utah, Texas, Hawaii, New Jersey, Nevada, Arizona, New York, Connecticut and the District of Columbia. States with the highest prevalence of smoking during pregnancy also include Kentucky,...