NEARLY one in 10 mums in Warrington smoke during their pregnancies according to new figures.

Statistics released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that of the 1,257 maternities in the town in 2015/16, 114 women were smokers at the time of delivery – which translates to 9.1 per cent of mums.

The town’s figures bode well compared to the national, north and Cheshire and Merseyside percentages – which stand at 10.6 per cent, 14.4 per cent and 13.5 per cent respectively.

Dr Ipsita Chatterjee, a GP and Warrington NHS Clinical Commissioning Group’s clinical lead for women and children’s services, welcomed the news.

She said: “This is indeed good news – it’s great to see that our efforts to help expectant mums to stop smoking is working.

“More importantly, the really good news here is that the impact of this will ensure that the child has the best possible start in life as well as improving the mum’s health too.

“The smoking cessation team are really helpful and supportive – I would encourage anyone who wants to give up smoking to contact them, it really is life-changing.”

Warrington has a track record of having a low amount of women smoking while pregnant, but Cllr Maureen McLaughlin highlighted that there was still work to be done – with the rate in some areas of town rising to 22 per cent.

The executive board member for public health and wellbeing said: “All expectant mothers want to give their babies the best start and giving up smoking is one of the best things you can do.

“We are pleased that the number of pregnant Warrington women smoking is lower than national and regional levels, yet we recognise that there is still a lot of work to be done.

“In some areas of Warrington one in five mothers who delivered between April and September 2015 reported that they smoked at the time of delivery.

“We have a specialist stop-smoking midwife and other services are available locally to help mums quit smoking.”