P.39 Smoking and substance misuse Smoking status of the mothers at their time of booking was recorded for 293 (90.2%) of the 325 women in 2018. Of these, 40 (13.7%) were smokers at the time of booking. Data on the number of cigarettes smoked was known for 34 of the 40 cases. Twenty-one were smoking between one and nine cigarettes per day (n=21 of 34, 61.8%) and thirteen were smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day (n=13 of 34, 38.2%). In 2019, smoking status of the mothers at their time of booking was recorded for 328 (91.1%) of the 360 women. Of these, 53 (16.2%) were smokers at the time of booking. Data on the number of cigarettes smoked was known for 39 of the 53 cases. Seventeen were smoking between one and nine cigarettes per day (n=17 of 39, 43.6%) and twenty-two were smoking more than 10 cigarettes per day (n=22 of 39, 56.4%).

In 2018, information on smoking in late pregnancy was available for 25 of the 40 smokers (62.5%) and only one case (4.0%) stopped smoking during pregnancy. In 2019, information on smoking in late pregnancy was available for 46 of the 53 smokers (86.8%) and nine cases (19.6%) had stopped smoking during pregnancy. The prevalence of smoking during pregnancy or in the last trimester is not routinely known for all Irish pregnancies but rates of 12%, 15%, 16% and 19% have been reported for England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, respectively.43 In 2018, three women had a documented history of alcohol misuse prior to pregnancy and one woman had a documented history of alcohol misuse during pregnancy.

Four women had a documented history of drug misuse prior to pregnancy and one woman had a documented history of drug misuse during pregnancy in 2018. In 2019, no woman had a documented history of alcohol misuse prior to pregnancy or had a documented history of alcohol misuse during pregnancy. Four women had a documented history of drug misuse prior to pregnancy and two women had a documented history of drug misuse during pregnancy in 2019.