All Pregnant Women to Take Smoking Tests as it is Revealed One-in-Five Still Light up While Expecting
Women with high carbon monoxide readings to be given advice on quitting
Midwives have described the guidelines as ‘ill-judged’
Previous research suggested link between smoking during pregnancy and the risk of a child developing meningitis
Pregnant women are to take breath tests to check if they are smoking in a bid to tackle the one in five who light up while expecting.
Midwives will test women at antenatal appointments and those with high carbon monoxide readings will be given advice on how to quit smoking, although no NHS treatment is compulsory, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said.
Babies born to women who smoke during pregnancy are three times more likely to have a low birth weight, which is a leading cause of infant death.
Midwives however have described the NICE suggestion as ‘ill-judged’, The Sunday Times has reported.
In December last year researchers warned smoking during pregnancy can treble the baby’s chance of developing meningitis.
It is believed 21 per cent of woman smoke during pregnancy.
Researchers from the University of Nottingham analysed 18 studies which looked at the link between passive smoking and meningitis.
They found that children exposed to second hand smoke in the home were more than twice as likely to get the illness.
The under-fives were even more vulnerable – they were found to be two and a half times more at risk.
And children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were three times more likely to get meningitis, the study published in BMC Public Health found.
According to The Sunday Times, a Royal College of Midwives source said the new guidance from NICE on breath tests could damage relationships with expectant mothers.
The source said: ‘Midwives should not be seen to be “policing” pregnant women and enforcing CO monitoring.’
Ellie Lee, director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent, said: ‘If pregnant women think they need help with stopping smoking then that is fine, but it’s not the place of midwives to start dictating to pregnant women what they do and don’t do.’
Ellie Lee, director of the Centre for Parenting Culture Studies at the University of Kent, said: ‘If pregnant women think they need help with stopping smoking then that is fine, but it’s not the place of midwives to start dictating to pregnant women what they do and don’t do.’
Originally written By JAMES RUSH, Daily Mail
