"If someone tried to give your baby a cigarette, you wouldn't let them, would you?"
Stark words from young mum Danielle Cull who managed to quit a 12-year smoking habit when she became pregnant with both her daughters, one-year-old Darcy-Mae, and and Myla-Rae, who is just four months old.
Danielle, 27, from Bulwell, started smoking when she was just 15 years old and said her habit was costing her £40 a week, money which she can now spend on her two beautiful daughters.
“As soon as I did the test, I stopped smoking straight away. It was an easy choice for me. I could just imagine the smoke going down through me and into the baby. Even when my baby was just the size of a grain of rice, I knew I had to stop smoking," she said.
“The unborn baby is human life – it’s your job as a mother to protect your baby, even before it’s been born. Your baby hasn’t made the choice to smoke so why should it have to have all that smoke?"
She admits that even though her pregnancies weren't planned she didn't need to be told to stop, she just knew.
“My partner doesn’t smoke so he was very supportive, but I was lucky that I didn’t need a huge amount of willpower. The unborn baby doesn’t have a choice so you have to do what you can to make it safe. The baby was enough for me.”
Danielle started to smoke again after the birth of her first baby Darcy-Mae, although it was fewer cigarettes than before she was pregnant. “I used to smoke outside the house after she was born and I would try to stay away from her immediately after I’d smoked, but I carried on because I wanted to.
“Then I fell pregnant again when Darcy-Mae was seven weeks old, so I stopped again. It was a bit harder the second time, but I knew I had to do it.
“I just had to think about the baby – you have to protect that little life inside you. By smoking, you’re putting that baby in danger. You wouldn’t give a newborn baby a cigarette, so why do it to them before they’re born.”
Danielle has not picked up the habit again after the birth of Myla-Rae. “It’s been harder, but I’m saving money and my asthma has been better too. It means going without, but it’s definitely worth it.
She says she was lucky that stopping smoking wasn't a massive struggle for her and is also keen to stress that she is not preaching to other women.
"I'm not saying I've done this so you should, far from it," she said. "But I just thought about my baby - it didn't matter if I was moody or narky, it was for the baby."
Nottingham City Council worked with the NHS in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire to launch the LoveBump campaign to help women to cut down on smoking after statistics revealed almost twice as many women in some parts of the city and county smoke during pregnancy compared to the national average.
Smokers see their GP over a third more often than non-smokers and smoking is linked to nearly half a million hospital admissions per year, so the drive to encourage smokers to quit is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: “No parent should have to endure the heartbreak of stillbirth, and NHS action, delivered through the skill and professionalism of our midwives, nurses and doctors – means an even greater number of parents and babies experience a healthy birth.
“The NHS Long Term Plan sets out a clear and ambitious plan to improve England’s maternity services, which alongside even more expectant mums taking action themselves by stopping smoking, will make having a baby as safe as possible”
All the help and support smokers need can be found on the new NHS app which has been rolled out across the county over the last couple of months.
With the app you can do anything from making an appointment with your GP to ordering repeat prescriptions and getting advice on a huge range of health conditions, including stopping smoking.
The app is a significant step in modernising NHS services and should make life easier for patients and for practices, with the ability to book and manage appointments online, order repeat prescriptions, view your medical history and access 111 Online, among other services.
GP Sonali Kinra is the clinical lead for maternity and said using the app to access information, advice and support on giving up smoking was going to have a big impact on the health of both mums and babies in the city.
"We are looking at the impact across the spectrum, through pregnancy and afterwards," she said. "Smoking during pregnancy can cause miscarriage, low birth weight, stillbirth and cot death, and second hand smoke is so damaging to babies.
"We want to help mums change their lifestyle so they are healthier, and so are their babies."
