Tobacco use: maternal smoking

Information on smoking behaviour in pregnancy is collected as part of PHS’s Scotland's SMR02 data scheme. The information presented here refers to smoking history recorded when a woman attends her first antenatal booking appointment. Concerns have been raised about the completeness and quality of the SMR02 data, particularly in relation to the number / percentage of pregnant women whose smoking status is recorded as "not known". Some of these women may, in fact, be smokers. As such, the percentage recorded as current smokers may underestimate the true smoking prevalence among pregnant women. Care should therefore be taken when interpreting these data.

Statistics on maternal smoking in Scotland are available on the Maternity and Births section of the PHS website. The data below is taken from Excel file Table 3 - maternal smoking status (70 Kb) of the Births in Scottish Hospitals 2021/22 Report.

Time trend

In 2021/22, 5,492 pregnant women in Scotland were recorded as being current smokers at booking (11.8% of all those at booking). The proportion of women reporting being current smokers at booking has declined from 31% in 1997/98.

By age

In 2021/22, a higher percentage of women in Scotland were recorded as smoking during pregnancy in younger age groups. The high percentage among the under 25s (23%) is particularly notable. This may be partly due to teenage pregnancies being more common in disadvantaged areas where smoking rates are highest.

By SIMD quintile

SIMD is the Scottish Government's official measure of area based multiple deprivation. In 2021/22, a higher percentage of women were recorded as smoking during pregnancy in more deprived areas: 22% in the most deprived SIMD quintile compared with 2% in the least deprived quintile.

By NHS board

The percentage of women smoking during pregnancy in Scotland varies by NHS board. Care should be taken when comparing NHS boards as estimates are not age-standardised. Furthermore, there are differences across boards in the percentage of women whose smoking status has been recorded as "not known". As some of those recorded as "not known" may be smokers, the true smoking prevalence may be underestimated.
In 2021/22, the highest prevalence was in Ayrshire and Arran (18%) while Orkney had the lowest prevalence (6%).

Stop Smoking

The annual Stop Smoking statistics published by PHS hold data on the number of pregnant women accessing smoking cessation services. In 2021/22, there were 1,081 quit attempts by pregnant women. Of these, 53% had quit smoking by four weeks and 39% by twelve weeks. The twelve-week quit rate has been improving from 17% in 2009/10. Quit attempts by pregnant smokers are only available in the annual Stop Smoking publication (they are not available in the quarterly publication), which only has provisional data up to 2021/22.