published

Smoking in Pregnancy Project Report: June 2012
6. Additional recommendations for
national consideration
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To ensure consistency and quality of implementation a nationally led and funded phased
roll out approach is advocated
Further evaluation of the longer-term use (12–24 months) of referral pathways and
electronic referral systems during pregnancy and into the postpartum period is suggested.
In particular this would allow further investigation into re-referral activity, including how
this is best supported and what impact this has on the number of women accessing
support and successfully stopping during pregnancy
Further investigation into biochemically testing smoking status at time of delivery is also
encouraged as this would increase confidence in the SATOD data submitted by local
areas and support more accurate measurement to inform the relevant public health
outcome indicator
Finally, the beliefs of broader health care professionals such as GP practice staff and
pharmacy staff regarding their role with pregnant smokers are yet to be investigated in
detail. Whilst, it is logical and important to focus policy and communications predominantly
on dedicated maternity professionals such as midwives, obstetricians and maternity
assistants as well as health visitors, it would be useful to have a greater understanding
of the opinions of other professionals who are involved in the care of pregnant women.
Funding such research could help ensure that any opportunities to maximise policy and
communication developments have been explored
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