Pregnant women can pocket £260 in shopping vouchers if they quit smoking
The women will be carbon monoxide tested to make sure they have not been smoking
PREGNANT women are being handed shopping vouchers to stop them smoking.
Each pregnant smoker can pocket up to £260 from the vouchers if they can stay off cigarettes for their pregnancy and a further 12 weeks.
At least 65 women in Stoke-on-Trent in Staffs, have received taxpayer funded vouchers for shops including Argos, Debenhams, New Look and TK Maxx - leaving the council picking up a bill of around £17,000.
The vouchers, funded by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, are paid in instalments for every two weeks a mother-to-be goes smoke free.
If they complete the course, their partner or a friend will also receive £40 of the Love2Shop vouchers for offering their support.
The scheme, called Healthier Futures Supporting a Smokefree Pregnancy, is part of a range of measures in an attempt to cut the number of smoking related child deaths in the city.
Smoking has also been linked to a number of costly, complicated deliveries at hospitals.
The women will be carbon monoxide tested to make sure they have not been smoking.
Smoking while pregnant has been linked to premature birth, poor birth weight, birth defects and even sudden infant death syndrome.
Councillor Ann James, cabinet member for health and social care, said: "This is a pilot intended to encourage pregnant women to agree a quit date and sustain it for at least 12 weeks after they have given birth.
"People who take part receive shopping vouchers for every week they go smoke-free, as an incentive to carry on.
"Studies on voucher based reinforcement therapy offer compelling evidence that positive reinforcement with shopping vouchers creates positive changes in behaviour, and we want to see if this approach can improve child health in Stoke-on-Trent."
Latest figures show an estimated 55,000 adults in the city smoke, nearly one third of the population.
Nineteen per cent of pregnant women in Stoke-on-Trent smoke, compared to a national average of 12 per cent.
In a 2015 study 306 pregnant women were given retail vouchers to encourage them to give up smoking.
The trial proved to be 'highly-cost effective', according to the study’s author Linda Bauld.
She said: "There have been very extremely successful voucher schemes in other areas.
"I know incentives raise controversies, but they do provide an extra motivation."
Clair Brennan, a 36-year-old mother of three, said: "When I was pregnant it was very much 'old school'.
"I was told to go with exactly what my body was telling me.
"Sometimes I went for weeks without smoking, but I never thought 'I have to quit'.
"It's very subjective – I had to stop drinking tea during one pregnancy.
"It's really the decision of the woman.
"I don't think this scheme is a waste of money because it's always a great idea to educate people, especially younger parents, about the issues."
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However, some residents in the city have expressed concern at the amount of money being spent by the council on the scheme.
Business owner John Morrison, 40, said: "This makes no sense at all and is quite unfair on those women who have never smoked at all.
"They don't get shopping vouchers do they?
"At a time when the council should be spending money on improving the roads and helping drive people to the city, giving money away to women who should know better seems a waste of money."
Mum-of-three Angela Copeland, 40, from Stoke-on-Trent, added: "I have never smoked in my entire life but do I get a free handout? No I do not.
"Rather than reward pregnant women for not risking the lives of their unborn children, why not punish those women caught smoking or drinking while pregnant.
"Surely that's a better and fairer way to protect babies from their reckless parents."
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