Pregnant smokers don't tell midwives

Pregnant women are not always admitting to their midwives that they are smoking through their pregnancy finds new medical research.

A team of researchers in Scotland assessed whether self- reported smoking during booking in sessions was a reliable way of detecting pregnant smokers.

A random study of 3475 pregnant women from West Scotland had blood tested to detect nicotine exposure.

The research published today on the BMJ website found a total of 839 pregnant women admitted being smokers but figures showed that in reality a high number of 1046 women were actually smoking.