One in seven mums-to-be is a smoker
ONE in seven women who go to NHS antenatal classes in Halton and Warrington is a smoker.
New NHS figures reveal 13.5% of women booking an appointment in Warrington And Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in December 2016 were smokers, 25 in total.
Elsewhere, a total of 21.8% of those booking an appointment in Liverpool Women’s Hospitals in the same month smoked and is one of the highest rates in the country. The average woman using the services who smoked got through more than six cigarettes a day, among the most in England.
Wirral University Teaching Hospital saw the lowest rate in the area with only one in every 13 women going to antenatal classes there smoked.
Smoking during pregnancy, or living with someone who smokes, can affect the baby both before and after birth.
The risks of smoking during pregnancy are serious, from premature delivery to increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth or sudden infant death.
During the pregnancy the poisons from the cigarette smoke are passed on to the baby and the exposure to these poisons can last up to 15 minutes at a time.
This happens for each and every cigarette smoked.
Regionally, the highest proportion of women smoking at the time of booking an antenatal appointment in December 2016 was in the North Of England, where 16% of women were classified as current smokers.
They were also the ● heaviest smokers, as the average number of cigarettes smoked per day in this region was eight.
Women in London were the lightest smokers, smoking six cigarettes per day on average.
Doncaster And Bassetlaw Hospitals saw the highest rate nationally with one woman out of four, or 28.3%, classified as current smokers.
Conversely, Chelsea And Westminster Hospital recorded the lowest percentage, with just 0.4% of women attending classes smoking - 35 in every 1,000.