Health-care providers and insurance companies need to partner together to develop education and monetary incentive programs to convince women who are pregnant not to smoke or drink. The insurance companies could justify paying for the program based on the amount of money they would save long term if these woman stopped engaging in harmful behavior. The health-care provider could present the program at the women’s first prenatal visit and explain that if she attends she will get X amount of money.
A few other ideas I have to encourage women to stop smoking or drinking includes:
-Helping the women mak a connection with the baby. One way to encourage this would be by providing an ultrasound earlier in the pregnancy. Most women don’t visually see their baby until they are 20 weeks pregnant. Perhaps if they say the baby sooner they would feel a stronger responsibility to protect the baby through healthy behavior.
-Offering support like smoking and drinking cessation programs.
-Have them attend a program like Bodies Revealed that was in KC this past summer. I attended, and what I saw was SO much more powerful than a picture. I can’t imagine a pregnant person engaging in unhealthy behavior after seeing persevered babies at 2, 4, 6, 8,….weeks of gestation.
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