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Nearly half of all women who stop smoking during pregnancy go back to it once the baby is born

Posted on 18 March 2016

New research shows that 43% of women re-start smoking within six months of the birth of their child.

A paper, published this week in the scientific journal Addiction, and co-authored by Steve Parrott of the Mental Health and Addiction Research Group in the Department of Health Sciences, shows that nearly half of all women who stop smoking during pregnancy go back to it once the baby is born.

While not smoking during pregnancy is very important, there is an urgent need to find better ways of helping mothers stay off cigarettes afterwards.

The research team that produced the report is part of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, and includes collaborators from the University of Nottingham. The study was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Programme Grants for Applied Research programme.