Mums give up more easily when partners do too

Mums-to-be wanting to quit smoking need to persuade their partners to give up also if they are to overcome addiction, research suggests.

Researchers at the University of Wales, Bangor and Liverpool University, followed 620 women and their partners who were smoking at the beginning of a pregnancy.

A third of the partners reduced or quit smoking during the pregnancy. In these cases, women were more likely to succeed in cutting down or quitting than those women whose partners did not change their habits. The link appears independent of other key factors such as the level of partner support, joint planning of pregnancy and social class.

The research also showed that women whose partners did not smoke were twice as likely to successfully quit smoking in pregnancy than those with a smoking partner.

British Journal of Health Psychology