Why are 1 in 10 French women still smoking during pregnancy despite the health risks?

More than one in 10 French women smoke throughout their pregnancy despite the well-known health risks of doing so, according to new figures from Public Health France.

The survey of more than 1,300 mothers of children under five years old in 2021 found that 13 per cent of them smoked during the entirety of their pregnancy. This was similar to the results from the previous survey in 2017.

The recently released results show that "tobacco use is still very common" in both the adult population and during pregnancy, Public Health France said.

Smoking while pregnant is linked to health problems for both women and newborns. According to France’s national health insurance, it raises the risk of adverse outcomes such as miscarriage, stillbirth, premature birth, and placental abruption.

A recent study also found that even light smoking (one or two cigarettes) before or during pregnancy could increase the risk of serious neonatal health complications.

The new Public Health France report showed that 24 per cent of mothers of children under five said they smoked cigarettes at the time that they learned of being pregnant.

Of them, 45 per cent said they stopped smoking after learning of their pregnancy or during it, while 51 per cent said they reduced how much they smoked. Of those surveyed, 4 per cent neither stopped nor reduced their smoking.

The findings of the report echoed a separate Public Health France survey of 15,000 women that found that 12 per cent of them reported smoking in their third trimester of pregnancy in 2021.

That figure was an improvement, however, from the 16 per cent of women who said they still smoked during their third trimester in the previous 2016 survey.

Caroline Combot, president of the French National Union