to be furious that pregnant women in derbyshire are to be offered a cash incentive to give up smoking while pregnant.

[Wormshuffler]

Just reported on central news. Up to £750 in shopping vouchers.

Yanbu if carrying a baby isnt enough for a women to give up smoking then I don't think shopping voucher will.

YANBU. Ridiculous idea.

I live quite close to Derbyshire, perhaps if I have another baby I'll "take up smoking" in order to get free money.

YANBU. The government needs its head examining.

That's a good point CailinDana - how on earth are they going to prove that the expectant mother is a smoker before handing over the vouchers? Are they going to ask her to light up and smoke a ciggie as proof? What an utterly daft idea.

YANBU OP.

Co meters are used in smoking cessation clinics.Iwould think that they may be used in this situation.Daft idea though.

Its fairly easy to do, a simple breath test can measure the amount of carbon monoxide in the system. Its how they check you have actually given up if you are getting free NRT.

And sadly, to some women a baby isnt enough of a reason but £750 would be. Some years ago a young woman (21ish) who was a regular at our old local smoked and drank heavily throughout her early pg. She was then told that her baby probably wouldnt live much beyond birth due to a heart condition so she said she didnt see the point in giving either of them up. The babys condition wasnt as bad as originally thought and now, aswell as the heart condition he has fetal alcohol syndrome. I am sure the smoking wont have helped the low birthweight :(

However, if someone had offered her these vouchers, I am bloody sure she would have quit for them. Probably started again afterwards and then quit again when she had her next baby.

We moved not long after he was born, but I have often wondered how her son is :(

Will they be made to give the £750 back if the next CO test blows positive?

I will try and find an article about it for the details in a bit when my 7 weeker let's me put her down long enough to fire up the laptop.
Smokers placentas are gritty and grey. That would be a good check .
The dark side of me wants to say they should be offered cash not to get pregnant .

depends wether you think evidence based medicine is a good idea or not, if you think treatment should be based on clinical trials of what works then YABU as the clinical trials show this is very effective, saves the health service a lot of money and protects unbon babies where their mothers seem unable to

If you like putting on your judgey pants and don't care about the above points YANBU

I don't really understand why you are furious.

Is it likely to work? If it's effective then maybe the benefit to the babies is worth it.

The news report said chesterfield.

I have no problem being called a judgey pants over this issue. Anyone who could stop smoking for 750 but not for their child's health is not going to bring that child up well or with a healthy lifestyle.

It is a trial so it remains to be seen what the outcome will be. I would hope that anyone who is addicted enough to not be able to stop for their child would not be able to stop for the money either.

The thing that strikes me as most problematic about this is that it creates a pretty strong incentive to take up smoking when TTC, which could mean women starting to smoke when there are other children in the house.

I suppose I am furious at the thought that there may be people out there who would stop for this reason but not for their child. Rather than the incentive itself.

Anyone who could stop smoking for 750 but not for their child's health is not going to bring that child up well or with a healthy lifestyle.

And you base that assumption on what evidence exactly?!

Judgey pants is one thing but that is just a fucking ridiculous generalisation to make!

Bit 'meh' - perhaps they should be offered cash to give up having babies?

sarky

Furious? Really?

Would it be a bad thing if it worked?

I am surprised this hasnt kicked off yet as a previous thread I got involved in re smoking in pregnancy-well I pretty much got a kicking when I suggested that it was selfish and irresponsible....

Smoking is selfish and irresponsible full stop.

Awaits flaming...

Anyway, OP I think YABU. Yes, it's pretty bad that such an incentive is needed but if it works and protects the health of babies and mothers then it's a good thing.

I can't be arsed to start googling right now, but I'm pretty sure that financial incentives have been shown to be more effective in persuading addicts (of whatever flavour) to quit than abstract health-type benefits. So if it works, what's the problem?

YABU - our area was the first to pilot incentive scheme for pregnant women to stop smoking and its been extended now to cover other smokers. Initial results are that it has much higher quit rates than other cessation schemes - though it tends to be the ongoing support from pharmacists/CO monitoring that has the biggest effect. Quite a few folk joined the scheme but never claimed the incentive - the money wasn't the biggest factor for them.

The problem with pushing the health benefits is that they dont apply to the people they are aimed at.

Not one smoker genuinely believes that they will get cancer or have a stroke. Not one person who is morbidly obese believes that they will have a stroke or heart attack.
Not one alcoholic believes that their liver will pack up or they will get mouth cancer.

So they dont listen to the health warnings as they dont apply.

However, everyone can use a few hundred quid.

Smoking is selfish and irresponsible full stop.

No.

Starting to smoke is bloody stupid.

Being a smoker is an addiction, therefore there is no choice involved, selfish or otherwise.

I am totally sick of people treating smoking as something you can just decide not to do and if you dont then you are a selfish bastard. If it was that easy to quit, then no one would smoke. Believe me, no one wants to have a hobby that is the equivalant of buying cancer on lay-away at £60 a week

There was a young woman on that pregnant and smoking programme a while back who thought that by her smoking her way through pregnancy, her baby would be stronger than other babies as it had to fight to breathe in the womb, making it a fighter!!!

Seems to me that rather than offering money, educating children, teens at school and beyond is most likely going to help.

Remember that it's the county of Derbyshire who also send letters to parents saying their child is obese when they're clearly not.

I have no repsect for whoever is running derbyshire health authority.