Smoking and substance misuse pg 39

Smoking status of the mothers at their time of booking was recorded for 270 (93.1%) of the 290 women. Of these, 37 (13.7%) were smokers at the time of booking. Nineteen were smoking between one and nine cigarettes per day (n=19 of 269, 7.1%, unknown for one woman), and seventeen were smoking at least 10 cigarettes per day (6.3%).

Information on smoking in late pregnancy was available for all the women who smoked at time of booking and only three (8.1%) stopped smoking during pregnancy. National data on the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy or in the last trimester is not 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 another one had a documented history of alcohol misuse during pregnancy. Five women had a documented history of drug misuse prior to pregnancy and a further four had a documented history of drug misuse during pregnancy. Women who had a documented history of alcohol misuse were not the same as the five women who had a documented history of drug misuse.