--- title: 1 in 5 White Women Smoke During Pregnancy description: Proportion of pregnant white women — 21.8% — who reported smoking cigarettes within the previous 30 days, in a recent government survey [PDF]. Among pregnant... canonical: https://time.com/archive/7138562/1-in-5-white-women-smoke-during-pregnancy/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-05-11T20:30:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T10:27:52.362Z article:section: Health og:title: 1 in 5 White Women Smoke During Pregnancy og:description: Proportion of pregnant white women — 21.8% — who reported smoking cigarettes within the previous 30 days, in a recent government survey [PDF]. Among pregnant... og:url: https://time.com/archive/7138562/1-in-5-white-women-smoke-during-pregnancy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 1 in 5 White Women Smoke During Pregnancy twitter:description: Proportion of pregnant white women — 21.8% — who reported smoking cigarettes within the previous 30 days, in a recent government survey [PDF]. Among pregnant... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Health](/section/health/) # 1 in 5 White Women Smoke During Pregnancy by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) May 11, 2012 8:30 PM UTC by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) May 11, 2012 8:30 PM UTC _Proportion of pregnant white women — 21.8% — who reported smoking cigarettes within the previous 30 days, in a recent_ [_government survey_](http://www.samhsa.gov/data/spotlight/Spot062PregnantRaceEthnicity2012.pdf) \[PDF\]_. Among pregnant women of the same age (15 to 44), 14.2% of blacks and 6.5% of Hispanics reported smoking. Smoking during pregnancy is one of the key risk factors for SIDS; it also increases risks of miscarriage, early separation of the placenta, premature birth, low birth weight and birth defects. The same survey found that black (12.8%) and white (12.2%) women drank alcohol at roughly the same rate in pregnancy; Hispanic women (7.4%) were less likely to drink while pregnant. Black pregnant women (7.7%) were more likely than whites (4.4%) or Hispanics (3.1%) to use illegal drugs._ \[[via ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/05/10/1-in-5-white-women-have-smoked-while-pregnant/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7138562/1-in-5-white-women-smoke-during-pregnancy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7138562/1-in-5-white-women-smoke-during-pregnancy/"},"headline":"1 in 5 White Women Smoke During Pregnancy","datePublished":"2012-05-11T20:30:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T10:27:52.362Z","description":"Proportion of pregnant white women — 21.8% — who reported smoking cigarettes within the previous 30 days, in a recent government survey [PDF]. Among pregnant...","url":"https://time.com/archive/7138562/1-in-5-white-women-smoke-during-pregnancy/","keywords":["Alcohol","Drugs","Smoking","tobacco"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7138562/1-in-5-white-women-smoke-during-pregnancy/","name":"1 in 5 White Women Smoke During Pregnancy"}}]}] ```