An incentive programme set up by health chiefs to help expectant mums to stop smoking has seen a big increase in successful quits in its first seven months.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHSGGC) said that the success rate had jumped by 38 per cent.

The news comes in the same week new research outlined greater risks for both baby and mother than previously thought due to maternal smoking.

The research, in the BMJ Open, revealed closer links between maternal smoking in pregnancy and childhood hospitalisation, as well as medical conditions at birth which can result in lifelong ill health and have potentially devastating outcomes such as meningitis and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Carried out by Dr David Tappin, an NHSGGC consultant, the key findings of the study include estimates that seven per cent of deaths in the first month of life and 22 per cent in the first year are related to maternal smoking during pregnancy.

Findings for children under the age of five show that 12 per cent of hospital admissions for bacterial meningitis, 10 per cent for bronchiolitis and seven per cent for asthma were also attributable to maternal smoking.

NHSGGC evidence estimates that each year in the UK smoking in pregnancy causes up to 5,000 miscarriages, 300 peri-natal deaths and around 2,200 premature births.

As a result, the Board has made helping pregnant women to stop smoking a priority.

To help improve both their health and the health of their unborn babies, the board supports pregnant smokers to give up in a number of ways through its Quit Your Way (QYW) service.

The financial Incentives programme has been in place since July 2018 and up until January 213 people set a quit date which is a 38% increase from the same period 12 months earlier before incentives were introduced.

Women who successfully participate in the programme receive a £160 Love2Shop voucher.

Further information on the Quit Your Way service is available from www.nhsggc.org.uk