MORE women smoke while pregnant in the North-East than anywhere else in the country, new figures show.

Statistics published today (Thursday, June 18) by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) show that while the national average of pregnant women smoking is 11.4 per cent, in the North East it is 18 per cent.

The figure is slightly higher in the Durham, Darlington and Tees areas specifically, at 19.9 per cent, equating to one in five women continuing to smoke while pregnant.

Less than half of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) in England have met the national ambition to reduce rates of smoking throughout pregnancy to 11 per cent or less by the end of 2015 and the North of England had the lowest proportion to meet the target, with just ten out of 68 CCGs achieving it.

Hazel Cheeseman, director of policy at action on smoking and health charity Ash, said it was important that services were given the funding required to help more people kick the habit.

She said: “While it is really pleasing that the Government is on track to reduce rates to 11 per cent, there are significant regional variations.

“Women who are pregnant in the North-East are more likely to be smokers already so services have a bigger job to do than perhaps in places like London.

“Recently the Government announced £200m cuts to local health budgets but it is vital that the resources to help tackle this problem are available.”

Linda Bauld, co-chair of the Smoking in Pregnancy Challenge Group, said that despite some “encouraging” results, there is still much work to do.

She added: “Smoking in pregnancy is a major driver of health inequalities and more must be done to help communities where smoking rates are highest.

“Local areas now face real challenges in achieving this in the light of recently announced cuts to local public health budgets.”

A report by the Royal College of Physicians found that maternal smoking causes up to 5,000 miscarriages, 300 perinatal deaths and 2,200 premature births a year nationwide.

In the North-East that breaks down to 360 miscarriages, 22 perinatal deaths and 160 premature births.

In an effort to try and reduce the harm caused to unborn babies by smoking, a ‘babyClear’ programme was rolled out across the North East in late 2013 by Fresh, a regional quit smoking scheme.

And although pregnancy smoking rates remain high in the region, the new figures represent a 0.8 per cent reduction on the previous year.