Almost a fifth of pregnant women in Tameside are still smoking

Doctors have slammed 'horrifying' statistics that reveal almost 18% of pregnant women in Tameside are still smoking.

‘Horrifying’ statistics have revealed almost a fifth of pregnant women in Tameside are still smoking.

The figures, which were presented to a town hall meeting, were raised as a concern by GPs who said it was ‘unacceptable’ to see the numbers rising.

The national average of women still lighting up while expecting is 11 percent, but in January the figure of 18.3pc was recorded by the Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust. This was up from 16.5pc in December 2018.

Dr Jamie Douglas, who is a GP at the Albion practice in Ashton-under-Lyne, told members he thought it was one of their most ‘upsetting statistics’.
The maternal smoking and delivery numbers had always been ‘incredibly bad’ but now looked to be getting worse, he added.

The NHS warns that smoking cigarettes can restrict the essential oxygen supply to unborn babies, and can cause serious health complications.

The report presented at the meeting states that the trust aim to have a midwife and a part time maternity support worker in post by April, on top of existing staff.

However Dr Douglas said this seemed a bit ‘silly’, adding the advice should be part of standard antenatal care.

“In the same way that advising women about antenatal vitamins or what to eat, smoking is something that we should be focusing our energies on,” he added. “It’s not acceptable to see it getting worse.

“We’re already an outlier, and I’m really troubled by the fact that that’s getting quite significantly worse.”

Councillor Warren Bray queried whether the statistics included women using electronic cigarettes at the time of giving birth.

“I’ve read somewhere that some health authorities are promoting vaping to get people off cigarettes altogether,” he said.

Dr Douglas responded: “That’s the advice from Public Health England, that it’s better, it’s probably not very good for you but it’s better than smoking. But I’m not sure if that’s actually true in terms of smoking and vaping in pregnancy.

“And even in treatments that we have access to, like nicotine replacement therapy, we’re advised first line to help women just to stop. Don’t put on a patch – just stop, it’s bad for you having nicotine in your system. But it’s horrifying seeing 18.3pc of pregnant women are smoking at the time of delivery.”

Dr Syed Asad Ali, who is a GP in Denton, said myths still persist about the false benefits of continuing to smoke through pregnancy. “There is some alarming misinformation that is spread around, such as it reduces tears because babies are smaller,” he told members. 

Dr Ali added that if they wanted to solve the problem through primary care, they needed to get GPs to speak about it with expecting mothers.

“They’re more likely to listen to their GP than a midwife they’ve never met before,” he said. “We want a future where it actually becomes something we query and follow up at our surgeries.”

Interim director of commissioning Jessica Williams told the meeting they had ‘always known’ that reducing smoking among pregnant women was going to be a difficult target to achieve.

“We’re trying to tackle it in a number ways, including through our new substance misuse panel,” he said. “We’ve put extra investment in and we’re now trying to think of different ways of doing this. It is a huge challenge for us.”

Officer Ali Rehman added that he believed the interim figures – which are not yet published – have reduced since the beginning of the year.