Smokers who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant can now get help through the end of a web site that emphasizes support, rather than guilt or shame.

The site includes a personal counter output, various self-help materials, tips on having a healthy pregnancy and peer support.

Polls show that about one in 10 Canadian women smoke during pregnancy. But Dr Peter Selby said it was likely the percentage of women continue to use tobacco during pregnancy may be higher than 30 percent, depending on the segment of the population being studied.

PREGNETS purpose is to help women overcome their dependence, or at least significantly reduce the amount they smoke, but Selby said that “there is no safe amount of smoke exposure during pregnancy.”

“It is dangerous for both the woman and the fetus. It’s not just the fruit,” he said Thursday.

A woman who smokes during pregnancy poses a threatened miscarriage, as well as other well-documented risk of conditions such as cancer and cardiovascular disease.

“The risk to the fetus is an immediate risk,” said Selby, clinical director of the dependencies in a program of CAMH. “They’re much more likely to be premature, it is likely that we call the small for gestational age, and then they have a higher risk of such things as sudden infant death syndrome, and upper respiratory tract infection.”

As children, offspring of mothers who smoked during pregnancy are also more likely to develop behavioral problems and increased risk of obesity in adolescence, studies show.

Selby said the provision of online drop tool is designed to help women overcome the stigma associated with smoking during pregnancy.

While experiencing condemnation of society can be an incentive for some women to get rid of this habit, it can also lead to undesirable results, he said.

“The problem is, if you are addicted, a couple of things: you have to go underground, you become a closet smoker you do not seek help because you feel you will be judged  …

“And you go through pregnancy – what should be a good, happy time -. Feelings of guilt and anxiety into a trap and that the result would be”

Experts have long pointed out that being hooked on tobacco is one of the most complex and difficult to overcome addictions.

“It’s not so easy to just stop, no matter what good reasons”, including having had a heart attack or organ transplants, he said. “It’s the nature of addiction, that people, despite wanting to, can not stop.”

Selby said the company aims to “take on the mothers”, when in fact partners and other family members who use tobacco also contribute to injury by exposing a pregnant woman and, therefore, the fruit of her second-hand smoke.

“My father can do whatever he wants during the woman’s pregnancy, but it did not expect to get,” he said. “It’s not just a problem of it. It is a matter for the decision.”

In the section on peer support, the site advises. “When you quit smoking or reduce it helps to get support from people around you, women are generally more difficult to quit smoking or reduce when their partner and others close to them who are smoking.”

PREGNETS also provides up to date evidence-based information on smoking and access to medical practitioners, who can be used with patients, he said.

“Not many professionals know what to do, There’s a lot of misinformation Some people say that..” Do not quit, because it is too stressful for the child. It is a myth, “said Selby, but he seems to be immortalized in the world.

Nevertheless, PREGNETS not only about the “dry facts and knowledge” – is about women having a forum to exchange ideas and find support from peers their fight nicotine addiction, he said.

“The anonymity the Internet provides the potential to provide a place for women who can be very isolated, but have access to the Internet to get information and share their ideas and thoughts and feelings and worries and fears, without the risk of being tried,” said Selby.

“Now there’s a place where, if you do not like to talk your health professional or a family member or whomever does not mean that you are alone.”

None of my friends smoke, and when I talk to them about it, I feel that they just do not understand, I have not set a date to quit yet, but hopefully in the near future, I feel that I need to get some more motivated by the first … I hope that this site will help in this department. “