The attitude of maternity staff to, and smoking cessation interventions with, childbearing women in London.

OBJECTIVES: To explore the self-reported smoking-cessation interventions of maternity staff with pregnant smokers, and their attitudes towards smoking in pregnancy.

DESIGN AND SETTING: Postal survey of all 137 maternity staff (clinical grades A-H) at a large acute hospital in London; 78 questionnaires were completed (response rate: 57%).

FINDINGS: Over two-thirds of respondents (71%) reported not advising any pregnant women to give up smoking within the previous 7 days. However, nearly two-thirds (64%) felt that women should not be left to make up their own minds about whether or not to smoke during pregnancy, and even more (81%) agreed or strongly agreed that many pregnant women would like to give up smoking but need help and advice on how to succeed. Helping a pregnant woman to give up smoking was seen as being one of the most important things a midwife can do by 73% of the respondents.

CONCLUSIONS: Although the reported attitudes were supportive of the midwife's role in smoking cessation, they did not translate into practice. The level of smoking cessation interventions was low.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The findings from this study indicate some deficits in knowledge among maternity staff that training may address. Raising awareness of the local smoking-cessation service, and how to refer women to it, may increase the number of referrals maternity staff make.