Scheme is worth every penny
I WAS saddened by your June 5 coverage of the NHS Significant Other Support (SOS) programme, which helps women who are pregnant and who have already managed to stop smoking, to stay that way throughout the rest of their pregnancy and beyond.
Mums-to-be know how important it is not to smoke, for their own health and the health of their baby. But tobacco is highly addictive – that's why it can be difficult to stop smoking and all too easy to start again. Not many of us can throw our last cigarette packet in the bin and simply quit, no matter how much we might want to.
Protecting babies from smoking is worth every penny. SOS helps women who have already made the huge step and managed not to smoke for four weeks. It offers a bit of extra support to help them stay smoke-free throughout their pregnancy.
It also saves money that we can use for other services. The additional medical costs associated with maternal smoking during the first year are an estimated 1,400 per mother. Every 1 spent helping a pregnant woman to stop smoking saves the NHS up to 4.
We should be proud that there are NHS services, families and friends who can help women like Mrs Thorn to stop smoking and celebrate that she has now gone on to help others in her neighbourhood to quit by becoming a peer supporter.
That is a wonderful achievement and one I hope will inspire many more people to do the same.
Dr Andrew Furber,
Director of Public Health,
NHS Wakefield District
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Weather for Wakefield
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
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