Through a process of meta-
ethnography, we identified four lines of argument that trace
the journeys made by women who were smokers at the start
of their pregnancy: from ‘being a smoker’ to ‘being a preg-
nant smoker’ and ‘trying to quit’ or ‘continuing to smoke’.
The different ‘smoking journeys’ often cross-cut each other:
women described how attempts to quit could not be sus-
tained, therefore they continued to smoke; how cutting
down was a positive change in its own right that reduced
risks to the unborn child. Running through all four lines of
argument was the context in which women lived their lives:
this framed women’s dependence on cigarettes, their
attempts to quit, and their decision to continue smoking