Does anyone know anything about a nicotine patch during pregnancy?

What I know is that there are definite risks from smoking, almost
anything that stops you from smoking is better than smoking - but it is
a wavy line, I know one person who managed to cut her pregnancy smoking
to 2 per day, down from 15 a day, chances are, that may well have been
better than the usual nicotine patch dose, but cutting down doesn't work
for everyone and having no cigarettes in the house at all is more
acheivable.

A few years ago I was part of a health and wellbeing working group, one
of the things we did look at was smoking in pregnancy, from the
perspective of the desire to quit and sucess in quitting and the kind of
help that was available, that kind of thing. One thing that was very
clear was that there was a strong desire to quit in pregnancy, but the
rate of actually quitting was really very little better than quitting at
any other time, which was in direct opposition to what caregivers
thought (who were usually non smokers), which was that if the desire to
quit was that strong then it should be doable by willpower alone - which
may be the approach your OB is taking, that she desires you to quit, but
isn't really prepared to work with you on that other than to tell you
all the bad things about smoking, which isn't exactly a very helpful
approach.

You know yourself best, you know how many you smoke, as the study you
linked to says, it's not just the nicotine in cigarettes that harming
the baby and that may be one of the least harmful aspects of it. I'd
look at the doses on the packet and find out how much is in each
cigarette and make sure you only use the number of patches that doesn't
end up increasing your nicotine intake. I'd also see if there were any
stop smoking groups you can join where you can meet with other people
trying to do the same thing. Also, if it helps now, set yourself the
goal of giving up for the pregnancy as short term goals generally tend
to be more sucessful than giving up for life.

I'd try calling that helpline and ask if they have any local information
for your area about groups and whatnot.

Good Luck

Anne