P.37 Smoking and substance misuse

Smoking status of the mothers at their time of booking was recorded for 344 (96.4%) of the 357 women. Of these, 47 (13.7%) were smokers at the time of booking. Twenty-one were smoking between one and nine cigarettes per day (n=21 of 40, 52.5%, missing information for 7 women), and nineteen were smoking at least up to 10 cigarettes per day (n=19 of 40, 47.5%).

Information on smoking in late pregnancy was available for 34 of the 47 smokers (72.3%) and only two (4.3%) 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.

Five women had a documented history of alcohol misuse prior to pregnancy and three women had a documented history of alcohol misuse during pregnancy. Six women had a documented history of drug misuse prior to pregnancy and four women had a documented history of drug misuse during pregnancy.