Help for smokers to quit while pregnant

PREGNANT smokers in Derbyshire are being invited to take part in a £1.3m study to help them quit the habit.

Derby City General Hospital is one of six in the Midlands running the trial to see how using nicotine replacement patches instead of smoking during pregnancy could affect mothers and babies.

Smoking during pregnancy causes about 4,000 fetal deaths and miscarriages in the UK each year and can lead to premature birth, low birth weight, cot death, asthma and childhood obesity.

Despite health warnings, Derbyshire County Primary Care Trust figures show that 14% of women in the county smoke while pregnant.

Government figures show using nicotine patches can nearly double a non-pregnant smoker's chance of giving up.

But pregnant women's bodies process nicotine faster, so researchers are trying to find out whether patches would be as helpful for them.

Fiona Holloway, research midwife for the project, said using nicotine replacement patches was better for babies than smoking.

She said: "Smoking impacts on the flow of oxygen to the baby in the womb, so it can cause all sorts of problems, and a lot of babies are smaller when born if their mother smoked during pregnancy.

"Patches do mean nicotine is going into the mother's body, but it's a smaller, controlled dose, and after a few weeks we wean her off completely."

More than 500 women in the region have already signed up, including 30 in Derby, and others who have maternity care at City General are being invited to take part.

Lisa Dickins, 43, from Codnor, is 30 weeks' pregnant and joined the trial in April. She has not smoked since.

She said: "I had been smoking since I was 14 but I had been trying for a baby for five years, so I really wanted to look after my baby's health. I decided to join when I saw an advert at the antenatal clinic.

"It really helps knowing that someone is there for support. I wasn't afraid as I knew there was always someone ready to help at the end of the phone."

The six-year Smoking, Nicotine and Pregnancy Trial has been paid for by the Health Technology Assessment Programme.

Researchers also want to find out whether nicotine patches have any side effects or impact on children's development.

Women between 12 and 24 weeks pregnant are being invited to take part in the trial.

Participants are given up to eight weeks of nicotine or placebo patches. Using placebos enables researchers to make comparisons.

Women are given support and advice on quitting smoking until their baby is born by a research midwife and the local stop-smoking service.