Fifty of our Midwives, MSWs and Student Midwives attended some special “Very Brief Advice” training recently.

National expert trainer on smoking in pregnancy, Lisa Fendall (pictured third from left), who featured in the BBC's Misbehaving Mums-to-be programme, came to deliver the training, which was held off-site at Rastrick Fire Station.

Lead Midwife for Public Health, Kate Heighway, fourth from left,  said: “Currently in our area, around one in ten babies develops in a toxic environment in the womb due to parental smoking, and this has lifelong consequences for the baby. We have a duty of care to those babies, so we can’t keep doing the same thing we’ve always done and expecting different results. Today is the start of our ‘something different’.”

Colleagues learned how to manage CO testing and conversations in a non-judgmental way, whilst at the same time demonstrating a high level of professional concern for the unborn baby.

We also heard about the language that mothers have said they want us to use, such as explaining that ‘small babies’ are weak, sick and poorly babies and to describe how pre-term babies are more likely to be admitted to ‘neonatal intensive care’ rather than ‘special care’. Communicating with families in this way is proven to improve engagement with referrals to our specialist team.

The training will support the new Smoke Free Pregnancy Pathway and our in-house stop smoking support for pregnant women, which launched last October. Interested colleagues who missed the training can email naomi.hegney@cht.nhs.uk to go on a waiting list for a catch-up session later in the year.

Some of the attendees are pictured with Lisa, Kate, Maternity Health Adviser Lucy Pendlebury and Sally Lee, who came to observe from the ICB.