AB Most women are certainly aware now of increased dangers of smoking in pregnancy to them and the baby. Things like reduced blood supply to the baby, cot death and so on.
L I just didn't really realise in my previous pregnancy that me smoking would affect the baby at all. Now I realise quite a lot of the carbon monoxide that I'm inhaling also goes into my baby.
LF Smoking whilst pregnant makes a woman five times more likely to suffer with pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, which is a rise in blood pressure, putting protein out in the urine, swelling, and ultimately is the second highest cause of death whilst pregnant.
J Smoking can contribute to low birth weight and health problems later in life, even if the baby's perfectly healthy when it's born.
MP One of the knock-on effects is that the baby doesn't do very well in labour. The baby's heart rate can dip, you're more likely to have complications, it's more likely that the baby might need to be born by caesarean section because it's not well and healthy enough to withstand normal birth.
AB These are horrible things to think about but the really good news is that there is so much we can do to help you stop.
J Although I wanted to quit, it was difficult, and I was worried that people would maybe think badly of me because I wasn't able to do that just like that.
L It's not easy, at all. It's very hard. You need that support there.
LF There's a physical addiction and there's also the psychological habit as well. when we help someone come off cigarettes.
AB Do it with support, do it with treatments, because that will give you and your baby the very best chance.
MP The NHS Stop Smoking services can offer support on a one-to-one. They can offer that in a group situation, by telephone, or they can do that over the internet.
AB
On top of support there are all the forms of nicotine replacement which make an enormous difference to the chances of you stopping and staying stopped. So there's lots out there which is going to make a big difference.
- What I do initially is give your information to the team, then they'd contact you and discuss with you the best way to stop.
J If you feel it's going to be too difficult to give up smoking when you're pregnant, if you could just pick up the phone, it's as simple as picking up the phone, to call the number and to... just for a five-, ten-minute conversation, they let you know what's available, what help's out there, and it's up to you then if you decide to take it.
VVR For expert advice and ways to go smokefree, call the NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline. They have specialist advisers who can help you. Or talk to your GP, midwife or health visitor - they can tell you what's on offer locally.
L Hi, my name's Laura, I'm 29 weeks pregnant. I stopped smoking using the NHS Stop Smoking service adviser. When I was pregnant with my son I was a bit younger and didn't really realise the full extent to how it can affect his health. And with being pregnant this time I knew a lot more how it can affect the baby's health, which I didn't really want to do.
HH We're going to visit Laura who's been with our service for the last five and a half months. She's been doing really well, so really positive. And she's got a little boy and she just felt being seen at home would enable her to maintain the programme.
L I chose to have the stop smoking advisers come to my house and do one-to-one visits. And it was actually Helen and Louise that were able to come round, they were lovely.
L It happened very quick. She phoned, made the appointment for the next day. She came the next day and then that was it. I was finding myself stopping smoking. It was...I was very impressed, the support's been brilliant.
HH It's really important to see the pregnant women as soon as possible, so we do fast-track them for that reason, just so that we can get them on our books, we can get them the help and support that they need so they can actually consider giving up smoking as soon as possible.
L They just talk with you, it's just a friendly conversation. It's very warm and welcoming. They don't try and push you at all, they speak to you and find out your thoughts and your feelings about the situation first. And they do explain to you how hard it is and that they'll be there every step of the way.
HH Some of the common factors that will help people stick to the programme are support, really - taking up the support we've got to offer - and being supported by people around them. Telling people that they're quittingand getting people to acknowledge that and just ensuring that they're not going to be putting themselves in vulnerable situations and ensuring that they've got the strategies there ready to use if they need them.
L
Some of the common factors that will help people stick to the programme
are support, really - taking up the support we've got to offer - and being supported by people around them. Telling people that they're quittingand getting people to acknowledge that and just ensuring that they're not going to be putting themselves in vulnerable situations and ensuring that they've got the strategies there ready to use if they need them.
- So you've managed not to smoke at all. You've done really well...
H
One of the tools that we use is a carbon monoxide monitor. We get ladies to breathe into the monitor and it measures the carbon monoxide in the bloodstream.
- Fantastic. Excellent. So that's nought.
H It's a great tool because people feel fabulous when they've quit and they see the massive reduction that has occurred.
L Do you want to tell people what you think about smoking?
LS It's disgusting.
LS I have been now a non-smoker since I was nine weeks pregnant, so about 19 weeks I've been stopped for. I think I've done brilliantly and I think that because I'm always being told how brilliantly I've done. It makes you feel really good about yourself and it's kind of swapped from me smoking and feeling good. I'm getting that support and praise and that's making me feel good, so I'm still getting something to feel good about.
VVR To find out more about local NHS stop smoking services in your area call the free NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline. Or talk to your GP, your midwife or health visitor - they can tell you what's on offer locally.
J My name's Jenny, I'm just over 20 weeks pregnant and I chose to use the Pregnancy Smoking Helpline. I just decided to give them a call because I'd tried to give up before, not been successful. I thought, "I'm pregnant, that's probably one of the best reasons to do it." To stop smoking.
AM The Pregnancy Smoking Helpline is a service that provide counselling, support, and help for pregnant women. We have a helpline that's open seven days a week, from 12 o'clock till nine o'clock. We send out literature to pregnant women, we give them referral to their local stop smoking clinics and we have a callback service where we have ongoing support throughout their pregnancy.
J I went for the telephone service because I've got three children. I would find it difficult to get out to meetings on a regular basis to speak to people. Whereas a phone call is easy, it's there, it's always available, so, chose it for that reason.
J The initial thing that I thought was they might think bad of me. Someone I didn't know would think, "You're pregnant, you shouldn't be smoking.
AM Sometimes women feel alienated, they feel guilty because they're smoking, that maybe their partners don't understand. They feel that maybe society is looking at them funny. And we're there to really give them the support without any judgement, but really just to be there for them, so that they can talk to us about their difficulties and feel supported.
J
Rather than telling me how bad it was that I was smoking, they focused on how good it was that I wanted to stop smoking. They were just very encouraging. The helpline's just been there to listen to me. When I have had problems, they've asked me how I've been coping, how I've dealt with particular situations.
- Try and think of what you could do instead. So, it's a good idea to pre-plan small distractions...
AM If they've had a relapse and they feel that they've blown it, to be able to work with them and get them back on track so that they go away feeling positive and feeling, "Yes, I can do that," then that makes us feel that we've done our job.
J It's been a while now, so it's not so difficult. It's not so much of an issue, I don't... It's a passing thought in my head that I want a cigarette and then it just goes again.
VVR For expert advice and ways to go smokefree, call the NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline. They have specialist advisers who can help you. Or talk to your GP, midwife or health visitor - they can tell you what's on offer locally.
AB On the treatment side, there is a whole range of what are called nicotine replacement treatments, which are replacing the nicotine from the cigarettes with a completely safe variety. Safe for you and the baby during pregnancy.
LF If you imagine there are 4,200 chemicals in cigarettes, if we take you off cigarettes and put you on a product, we are only putting one chemical back into the body, which is nicotine. It is not the most harmful chemical in a cigarette and it doesn't have the cancer-causing agents in it either.
AB There are six kinds of nicotine replacement. There are the patches and the gum, which many people know about. Then there are things like little tablets you put under the tongue. There are lozenges, there's an inhalator which looks a little bit like a cigarette and then there's a nasal spray.
HH There are some drugs and medicines that aren't licensed to be used in pregnancy. There's Zyban and Champix. But the good news is, we do have help and support with nicotine replacement therapy.
V One of the medications I used was the inhalator, which I did find really good. I didn't use it very often but I knew it was there if I needed it, because it did actually work, it did make me feel like, "OK, I don't need a cigarette any more."
HH Each and every individual lady that I go to see is going to be quite different. So we assess the need, assess how many cigarettes they smoke, how much they feel they need cigarettes.
LF So, a heavy smoker might need a full-strength patch and a light smoker might choose to have something like an inhalator. And it would depend on the person, their everyday life, and how addicted they are, as to which product would be most suitable
J Personally, I use just the chewing gum because it's a lot to do with feeling when you're smoking that there's... you know, the hand-to-mouth thing, and your mouth's busy, you're chewing.
L After speaking with Helen, we found that the inhalator was more suitable for me. It's just a little, pretend cigarette that you puff on. But with my morning sickness I found it not necessary. I thought it was going to make me more sick and just kept it on me as a back-up, really.
J To find out more about using nicotine replacement therapy when you're pregnant call the NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline. Or talk to your GP, pharmacist, midwife or health visitor.
VK My name's Victoria Kingston, I've got a four-month-old baby called Ella and I had the home service help to help me quit. I've had a lot of health problems over the years, so what made me decide, "Right, OK, I really need to quit now" is because I never thought I'd have kids. So, I thought, "I've got to do my utmost to make sure that everything is fine. And if it means doing that, then it means doing that. "I'll do whatever it takes just to make sure that she was OK."
SS
I think there are lots of pressures on new mums. The tiredness and the lack of sleep and when people are stressed they normally go to their comfort zones and smoking is a comfort and a stress reliever for a lot of people. But actually, the evidence shows that smoking increases stress so it's not good to start smoking, and it will make them more tired rather than less tired.
- Thank you very much, Victoria. No score, so you're obviously not smoking. Do you realise that's a year this month?
VK (Victoria) It is hard still, it's just as hard, to be honest, because you kind of think, "Well, OK, the child's not in me any more." So it's not passing through me. But even when they're by you, it's still on your clothes. You know, it's still there, but you just kind of have to focus back and think, "If I did it for nine months, or however long, "then I can carry it on, you know." Just keep giving yourself that reason of your child.
SS When I met Victoria, she told me she had a partner, Mark, and she was very keen that Mark also stopped smoking as Mark was quite a heavy smoker.So, obviously it was important to me that he quit just to give me that bit of encouragement.
M At the start I found it quite tricky. When I'm at work, there's loads of people that just smoke and don't really care. But I just persevered with it and carried on and in the end I just got there.
SS This was a very hard challenge for Victoria and Mark. As a young couple, the team effort has been amazing and they've done incredibly well, I'm very proud of them.
M Susan was a great help to us both. I don't think you could've got anyone much better to help you along and she helped us achieve our goal at the end.
VK It's been really amazing having Ella, love her to bits. She's just absolutely amazing, to be honest, she's such a bubbly baby. I do look at her and just think, "I'm so glad I did that," because otherwise I think I'd have looked at her and felt guilty. So, yeah, I do look at her and just think the way she is is partly because I didn't put her through all that, really.
VVR To find out more about local NHS stop smoking services in your area call the NHS Pregnancy Smoking Helpline. They have specialist advisers who can help you. Or talk to your GP, midwife or health visitor - they can tell you what's on offer locally.