NEW figures have confirmed for a sixth successive year that the North-East has the highest rates for women who smoke during pregnancy.

Almost one in five women who gave birth in the North-East during 2012-13 classed themselves as a smoker when they had their baby, according to new figures.

Nearly 5,700 women (19.7 per cent of 28,920) said they still smoked according to a report from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), London had the lowest rate of smokers during pregnancy in 2012-13 at about one in 17 (5.7 per cent, or 7,000 out of 122,320) and also had the lowest rate in each of the last six years. But a spokesman for Fresh, the North-East Tobacco Control Office, insisted that the figure was slowly coming down and revealed that a major campaign is planned later this year to encourage pregnant women who smoke to redouble their efforts to quit.

The Fresh spokesman said: "We are seeing a drop in the number of smokers at time of delivery figures - last year the figure was 20.7 per cent.

"Overall the North-East is making great progress and our smoking rates are falling year on year, faster than the national average. However, there is still a lot of work to be done in tackling smoking and this is central to the work of Fresh in helping to achieve better health for families, giving children the best start in life and reducing the financial drain on the NHS.

"We are currently working on a major programme called BabyClear across the whole region. This is to provide pregnant smokers with the highest quality support and evidence based support to help them quit. This programme has involved all the maternity services and stop smoking services across the region and should ensure that there is a strong foundation for the future to ensure that all pregnant smokers get the support they need to quit for the sake of their health and that of their unborn child.

"Smoking while pregnant causes a greater risk of miscarriage and stillbirth. Babies exposed to smoke in the womb are more likely to be born prematurely, with a low birth weight and have a higher risk of asthma, middle ear or other chest infections."