Mums get rewards to quit smoking

Pregnant women get incentives to stop

29 June 2006 10:15 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Health chiefs in Tayside, Scotland, are planning to give pregnant women incentives such as cinema tickets and food shop vouchers to encourage them to stop smoking according to a report on the BBC.

It seems Mrs Pocket-lint will be offered rewards up to £50 per month if she passes monthly breath tests.

Medical experts said that children whose mothers smoked were more likely to suffer respiratory illness and go on to become smokers themselves.

The rewards will be available for up to 3 months after a woman has given birth if she can demonstrate she remains a non-smoker.

Andrew Radley, lead pharmacist in NHS Tayside's directorate of public health, said: "Smoking in pregnancy remains one of the few preventable risk factors associated with low birth weight and very premature birth".

However it appears that once again fathers are left out with not a penny of the £100,000 pot put aside for the scheme going to dads who smoke.

Of course, cynical dads could always get their partner to start smoking just to get the extra benefit to spend on other things like more gadgets but you wouldn't do that, would you?

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