THE North-East has a higher proportion of smokers at the time of giving birth than any other area of the country.

Figures published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) showed that in the North-East area 16 per cent of pregnant women were recorded as smokers in 2015-16.

Overall the percentage in England was 10.6 per cent, or 67,200 of 631,230 maternities, down on 2014/15’s figure of 11.4 per cent.

The lowest smoking prevalence among women giving birth was in London at 4.9 per cent.

The national target in the Government’s tobacco control plan is 11 per cent.

In 2012 a new initiative, called babyClear, launched in the North-East with the aim of training up of hundreds of front-line maternity staff to talk about the dangers of smoking in pregnancy with expectant mothers.

It also automatically refers smokers into free, local support to help them quit. Since then there have been about 1,500 fewer North-East women who smoke in pregnancy.

Ailsa Rutter, director of the organisation Fresh Smoke Free North East, said: “It is clear that there is still some way to go to, but we have already seen some of the biggest drops in rates over last three years, thanks in no small part to the excellent work by North-East midwifery staff and stop smoking services.

“We plan to continue to work with mothers-to-be to reduce maternal smoking rates further still.”