The problem of smoking in pregnancy has remained a challenge to both public health professionals and Welsh Government with the low uptake of stop smoking services by pregnant women. Despite the evidence base for stop smoking, services have neither been implemented consistently nor robustly across Wales. Hence the need to develop a service improvement project like ‘Models for Access to Maternal Stop Smoking Support’ (MAMSS) to provide new ways of supporting pregnant women who smoke, alongside the current national Stop Smoking Services. The study explored the experiences and views of pregnant women smokers accessing stop smoking services in Wales. The need for suitable training was reported amongst public health professionals involved in providing stop smoking service for pregnant women. Most women wanted to reduce and not stop smoking; also available opportunities were important in determining the ability to access and deliver services, with the use of carbon monoxide (CO) monitors positively influencing the receptiveness of the pregnant women. Midwives were however reluctant to create an image of enforcing stop smoking and a holistic approach was advocated by some staff members to encourage health education and promotion. Overall, a specialist service such as that provided by the MAMSS project was viewed as appropriate. Public health professionals understood their roles and the advantages of the CO monitors in encouraging quitting/stop smoking in pregnancy. Specialist midwives made positive impacts on the pregnant smoker’s receptiveness to stop smoking support. Both staff and pregnant women acknowledged that accessibility and flexibility of service were key determinants of service delivery and service uptake, whilst incorporating an approach that is supportive rather than enforcing. This electronic document is a “live” template and already defines the components of your paper [title, text, heads, etc.] in its style sheet

Keywords : Stop Smoking, Public Health, Carbon Monoxide, Midwives and Pregnant Women