Health bosses bid to end smoking in pregnancy
Senior health leaders plan to work together to tackle one of the biggest health issue impacting children.
In an event held at the Emirates Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street, more than 100 officials from across the region came together to pledge their commitment to ending tobacco dependency in pregnancy.
The initiative was borne of a group of leaders who have participated in the widely acclaimed Yale System Leadership Programme.
The team of healthcare and local authority progressive thinkers identified an issue they felt they could tackle – tobacco dependency during pregnancy, and created a ‘guiding coalition’, including local maternity systems, leading
midwives and clinical experts.
David Hambleton, Chief Executive for South Tyneside CCG, said: “We wanted to tackle something we could impact, to create an aspirant direction for the future of the North East and North Cumbria.
“We wanted to create a new conversation, one that recognised smoking as an addiction.
“In order to ensure it would impact we called upon leaders across the system to support a new script for expectant mothers.”
The newly launched script, which talks to expectant mothers about their habit as ‘an addiction’, is aimed at sending a hard-hitting message about the realities of the impacts on their unborn child.
In January 2019, the NHS launched its ‘Long Term Plan’, which set out aims to tackle health inequalities with a firm emphasis on ensuring children have ‘the best possible start’.