New project run by Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is helping pregnant women quit smoking

BabyClear was successfully run in the North-east and has recently started being piloted by the Trust with specialist staff based at Ingleside Birth & Community Centre in Swinton.

The new system follows on from local initiatives like Bump the Habit, which are all designed to encourage women to stop smoking during pregnancy.

Official figures for 2017 show that the smoking reduction rates among pregnant women in England had slowed down in the previous 12 months.

NHS figures showed 10.5 per cent of women smoking at the time of delivery, which was a drop of only 0.1 per cent on the previous year. Over the same period, smoking rates among adults in the UK fell from 17.2 per cent to 15.8 per cent.

Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of complications such as miscarriage, premature birth, low birth weight and stillbirth. There can be an added risk of conditions like cleft palate and babies can also suffer respiratory infections and other health problems.

The new specialist service takes a different approach to the problem of women smoking during pregnancy. At a woman’s first appointment with the community midwife, usually at around eight weeks, she is offered a carbon monoxide test.

“This is a simple test, blowing into a tube,” explained Andrea Metcalfe, lead midwife in the new specialist service. “This is offered to all women and not just to smokers.”

The test checks for raised carbon monoxide levels which could be caused by a faulty gas boiler at home, living on a busy main road with high carbon monoxide emissions, passive smoking around the pregnant woman or the woman herself being a smoker.

If the levels of this poisonous chemical are raised, the community midwife will discuss the likely cause with the woman concerned. “If smoking is identified as the cause, we would then offer an immediate referral to the specialist service,” added Andrea.

The new service has just taken on three maternity support workers – Helen Parkinson, Hanelli Brain and Samantha McNamara. They either visit the women at home or possibly see them at Ingleside – the picturesque new centre set in Oakwood Park which offers a birth centre for women in Bolton, some parts of Salford and some of Bury.

The individual maternity support workers offer help including nicotine replacement therapy and ongoing support to quit. There is also a financial incentives’ system in place which gives the women £20 for the first two weeks of quitting, £20 for the second two and £20 per month during the pregnancy.

“The idea is to encourage them to stop smoking as early as possible in the pregnancy and to quit long-term,” stated Andrea. “The support workers visit the women regularly and we enlist a partner or friend of the women to help support them at home as well.”

So far, the results have been very encouraging. As Helen Parkinson said: “The majority of pregnant women so far seem keen to be involved in the new service and are doing well with it.”

Commented Andrea: “This system is certainly proving more effective than previously. It treats smoking as an addiction. Most people find that quitting is actually easier than they thought.

“BabyClear was very successful in the North-east although they did not have the financial incentives we have here.”

She added: “Generally, we encourage smoke-free homes and ask smokers to go outside to smoke and Take Seven Steps Out from the back door.”

* To find out more about the new specialist service call 07827 992883.

Caption: NEW SYSTEM – Left, Andrea Metcalfe, lead midwife in the new specialist service and maternity support worker Helen Parkinson