Statistics on Women's Smoking Status at Time of Delivery, England - Quarter 1, 2015-16

30/09/15 - After the publication of this report, it was brought to our attention that NHS Bury had provided incorrect figures for Q1 2015/16. The number of women smoking at the time of delivery was incorrectly provided as 185, it has now been revised to 55. The number of women known to be non-smokers has consequently risen from 363 to 493. This means that the percentage of women smoking at time of delivery has changed from 33.8 per cent to 10.0 per cent so it is no longer the CCG with the highest percentage. The percentage of women smoking at time of delivery has also changed at Region level (NHS England North (Lancashire and Greater Manchester) and Commissioning Region level (North of England), there has been no impact at national level. The report, data quality statement and tables have been revised to reflect these changes and have been footnoted accordingly.

In England, Quarter 1, 2015/16

• 10.7 per cent of pregnant women were known to be smokers at the time of delivery, this has fallen from 11.1 per cent for the most recent quarter (quarter 4, 2014/15) and from 11.5 per cent for the same quarter last year (quarter 1, 2014/15). Figure 1. This is the first time the proportion of pregnant women known to be smokers at the time of delivery has fallen below the national ambition of 11 per cent.

• Amongst all NHS England Regions^a , this varied from 15.8 per cent in Cumbria and North East to 5.0 per cent in London.

• Amongst the 209 Clinical Commissioning Groups, smoking prevalence at delivery ranged from 25.8 per cent in NHS South Tyneside to 1.4 per cent in NHS West London (Kensington and Chelsea, Queen's Park and Paddington).

• There were 156,331 maternities^b which is similar to the 155,677 maternities in the same quarter last year (quarter 1, 2014/15).

• 4.5 per cent of maternities had an unknown smoking status, this is the same as the most recent quarter (quarter 4, 2014/15) and an increase from 2.3 per cent for the same quarter last year (quarter 1, 2014/15). This should be borne in mind when interpreting the proportion of pregnant women known to be smoking at the time of delivery as the unknowns are effectively treated as non-smokers in the calculation.
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  Footnotes

a From 1st April 2015 the structure of NHS England has changed and Area Teams have now been integrated into the existing regional structures to form a single regional tier. More information can be found here https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/regional-area-teams/

b The number of maternities is defined as the number of pregnant women who give birth to one or more live or stillborn babies of at least 24 weeks gestation, where the baby is delivered by either a midwife or doctor at home or in an NHS hospital (including GP units). This count should be the number of pregnant women, not the number of babies (deliveries). It does not include maternities that occur in psychiatric hospitals or private beds / hospitals.