iHV welcomes BabyClear study to reduce smoking in pregnancy

Research published today by the University of Newcastle shows that the BabyClear programme, implemented in the north east of England to reduce smoking during pregnancy, has been very successful.

Pregnant women are almost twice as likely to quit smoking if they are supported from their first midwife appointment – and then are more likely to have heavier, healthier babies. Newcastle University researchers evaluated the “BabyClear” programme which follows the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance around smoking in pregnancy by screening all pregnant women for smoking using carbon monoxide monitoring.

Dr Cheryll Adams CBE, executive director, iHV, said:

“It is excellent that the pilot BabyClear programme in the North East has been so effective in helping women to stop smoking, yet there is more work to be done. Using this approach across the whole country, we can significantly reduce the number of pregnant women who smoke and, as a result, reduce perinatal mortality and morbidity – so giving more children a better start in life.”

The implementation of the BabyClear programme in the North East was supported by SFAC and Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group members Fresh North East.

For further details, read Newcastle University press release

Charities call for Government action to maintain progress on smoking in pregnancy rates

The Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group, a coalition of health and baby charities including the Institute of Health Visiting, today welcomed the news that smoking rates among pregnant women have continued to fall but warned that progress could be jeopardised if services to help people quit continue to be cut around the country.

By © 2005 by Tomasz Sienicki [user: tsca, mail: tomasz.sienicki at gmail.com] - Photograph by Tomasz Sienicki / Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=172810

Smoking at Time of Delivery data

Smoking at Time of Delivery data, published by the Government today, shows that 10.6% of women were smoking at the end of their pregnancy in 2015/16 compared to 11.4% in 2014/15. This means the Government has met its ambition to reduce smoking rates among pregnant women to less than 11% by 2015. However, these figures hide the variation between different parts of the country. Areas where smoking rates and deprivation are high have rates many times that of more affluent areas.

Fewer resources

In many places local authorities and local maternity services have been working hard to encourage more pregnant women to quit. However, cuts to the public health budget nationally mean there are fewer resources available locally to fund vital quit smoking support which can improve a person’s chances of quitting by up to four times.

Dr Cheryll Adams, executive director of the iHV, commented: “‘This is very good news but it’s important not to be complacent. We need to continue to support women to stop smoking when they are pregnant, and also around babies and young children, to help reduce health inequalities during their and their children’s lifetime.”

Read the full ASH press release

Nearly half of women who stop smoking during pregnancy go back to smoking soon after the baby is born

Joint research by the Universities of York and Nottingham, published today in the journal ‘Addiction’, has found that 43% of women who smoke, but manage to stay off cigarettes during pregnancy, will go back to smoking within 6 months.

Photograph by Tomasz Sienicki / Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=172810

While not smoking during pregnancy is very important, there is an urgent need to find better ways of helping mothers stay off cigarettes afterwards.

Dr Cheryll Adams, executive director of the iHV, said:

“It is vital that new parents remain smoke-free to ensure that their children are not exposed to the dangers of ‘second-hand’ smoke, as children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of ‘second hand’ smoke. Through the universal service, health visitors are well-placed to support parents to continue to be smoke-free after baby is born and to explain the benefits of having a smoke-free home.”

Approximately 18,887 pregnant smokers in the UK (3% of all maternities) used NHS stop-smoking support in the financial year 2014/15..

Paper is free to download for one month after publication from the Wiley Online Library