Chapter 1: Give every child the best start in life
Stopping exposure to tobacco
Protecting pregnant women and babies from tobacco smoke is one of the best things we can do to give our children a healthy start in life.
Approximately one in five (20%) women are exposed to second-hand smoke in their home throughout their pregnancy, leading to many of the same adverse birth outcomes experienced by women who smoke, such as low birth weight and premature births.
(Smokefree Action. (2022). Supporting partners to quit smoking.)
Women who live with a smoker are six times more likely to smoke throughout pregnancy and those who live with a smoker and manage to quit are more likely to start smoking again once the baby is born. As such, we must consider all family members when stopping exposure to tobacco as well as providing support for our mothers.
(Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. (2020). Smoking during pregnancy)
Stopping smoking helps both the mother and their baby immediately. And quitting smoking at any stage of pregnancy has health benefits - just one day of not smoking will allow the baby to get more oxygen and help their lungs to develop.
Even stopping in the last few weeks of pregnancy benefits mothers and their babies. It's also important that mothers have support to remain smokefree once their babies are born.
Stopping smoking in pregnancy means that:
- The risk of complications in pregnancy and birth is reduced
- Pregnancy and the baby is more likely to be healthier
- The risk of stillbirth is reduced
- Babies are less likely to be born prematurely
- Babies are less likely to be born with a low birth weight
- The risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), also known as 'cot death', is reduced
The percentage of mothers who smoke at the time of delivery is gradually reducing in Gateshead. Local data from Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust suggests in the year April 2021 - March 2022, 12.8% of mothers were smokers at the time of delivery.
(Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, Tobacco Dependency Treatment Service. Local data (unpublished).)
However, this is above the national average of 9.1% and is more than double the national target of 6% by end of 2022. (Department of Health. (2017) Towards and Smokefree Generation: A Tobacco control plan for England)
