Permanently smoke-free<br/><span class='hl2'>Smoking moms-to-be strive to go from pregnant pause to ...</span>

Ashley Adams stopped smoking two years ago when she was pregnant with her first child, but she took up the habit again after her son was born.

Now Adams, 22, is pregnant with her second son – and she's determined to quit for good.

"I know that I'm not just quitting for myself – it's basically my child that I'm protecting,” said Adams, of Shawnee. "And I realized I wanted to be around.”

She hasn't had a cigarette since Dec. 15. Her journey has been made easier by the Oklahoma Tobacco Helpline's new services for pregnant women.

The Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, which runs the helpline, implemented procedures this spring to help pregnant women quit smoking, and Adams is one of many women to seek the extra help.

The helpline offers services to any smoker who wants to quit, but a more intensive program is available for pregnant women because of the damage smoking can do to a fetus, said Tracey Strader, the endowment trust's executive director.

Pregnant women receive twice as many phone sessions with a trained quit coach than regular smokers who call in for help. The extra sessions stress the consequences of smoking and quitting permanently – not just while pregnant, Strader said.

"Women often will see it as ‘I will stop while I'm pregnant, but I'm not quitting,'” Strader said. "With that frame of reference, they don't redefine themselves as nonsmokers.”

That's a mentality the helpline's quit coaches hope to change, while helping smokers understand why they smoke and what activities they can do instead of smoking, Strader said.

"It's really walking her through a plan,” Strader said of the telephone-counseling sessions.

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