Peristat project: The number of women who smoke during the third trimester of pregnancy expressed as a percentage of all women delivering live or stillborn babies.
It is important to measure smoking at a similar point in pregnancy since many women stop smoking during pregnancy. A measure in the last trimester of pregnancy is a better measure of exposure during pregnancy than smoking in the first trimester.
Smoking during pregnancy is associated with adverse perinatal outcomes including spontaneous abortion early in pregnancy, growth restriction, preterm birth and perinatal death. Can be used as an indicator of prenatal care and prevention, if data is available on percent of pregnant women quitting smoking during the 1st trimester of pregnancy. Amenable to intervention.