WOMEN in South Derbyshire are ignoring health warnings by smoking during pregnancy, new figures reveal today.
A survey by the Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) showed that during 2008-09 the number of mums-to-be refusing to kick the habit was ‘significantly worse than the national average’.
Derbyshire's Director of Public Health, Dr David Black, said: "We know smoking during pregnancy is a challenge for us and is much more likely in young mothers and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
"We are working very hard with maternity services, midwives, GPs and others and have a dedicated stop smoking service for pregnant women to give them the help and support they may need.
"We have worked very hard to make sure that we fully record information on smoking in pregnancy, which means our data is very complete so we know exactly how we are doing and how best to plan our services.”
Overall, nearly 15 per cent of women who gave birth across England during the same period said they smoked during pregnancy.
But there was better news on other fronts, with South Derbyshire outperforming the national average for the number of deaths from lung cancer in 2006-08 and cancer registrations in 2005-07.
Figures released for East Staffordshire showed that it was also ‘significantly better’ than the national average in these groups.
The Department of Health commissioned the research, which was led by the London Health Observatory.
This was on behalf of the APHO, which represents 12 public health groups.
Dr Black said: “Smoking is the biggest cause of death in England, accounting for between one in six and one in 10 deaths.
“What this data shows is that the proportion of deaths caused by smoking in Derbyshire is lower than the average for England.
“Derbyshire has been operating stop smoking services for 10 years and we work with other organisations, including schools, to help people not to start smoking, to reduce the availability of counterfeit and smuggled tobacco and to create smoke-free environments wherever possible.
“Partly as a result of all this work, we can see that deaths in Derbyshire due to smoking are falling and are below the average for England.
“Statistics show that smokers who seek support from Derbyshire Stop Smoking Services and other NHS stop smoking services have a lot of success giving up smoking.”
* Anyone thinking about quitting smoking should telephone Derbyshire Stop Smoking Services on 0800 085 2299.
