28 February 2018 — 1649 mst

Montana's women have the nation’s third highest
rate of smoking during pregnancy

Women who really want healthy babies don’t drink, use only medications prescribed by their physicians, and don’t smoke. Smoking during pregnancy can lead to birth defects and other untoward outcomes. But a lot of women in Montana haven’t gotten the word, or have gotten it and don’t care.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, Montana has the third highest percentage of women — 16.5 percent — who smoke during pregnancy. Only in Kentucky (18.4 percent), a major tobacco producer, and West Virginia (25.1 percent), a minor tobacco producer, do a greater proportion of women suck poison tobacco fumes into their lungs while they’re with child.

Montana’s public health system is failing Montana’s mothers and children.