A scheme aimed at incentivising pregnant women who quit smoking has been hailed a success after a huge increase in pregnant smokers quitting smoking.
The evidence-based scheme involves offering Love2Shop vouchers for pregnant women who quit smoking and remain quit during and after pregnancy. This is in addition to the regular smoking cessation clinics and support.
The expectant smokers are asked to set a date by which they aim to quit smoking and then vouchers are paid weekly for the first four weeks from that date, then monthly through to birth.
There are further incentives if they remain smoke-free after giving birth, with a chance to receive vouchers worth £400.
One of the many pregnant smokers who have taken up the offer since its launch is Karolina Brodoceanu.
The 32-year-old, who is 17 weeks pregnant, started smoking 17 years ago and used to smoke 10 to 20 cigarettes.
When she was found to be pregnant in August 2025, she struggled to quit smoking but reduced the number of cigarettes to four per day.
After a consultation with her midwife at the Friarage Hospital, she was referred to maternity support worker Rebecca Eason for support to quit.
The Thirsk resident was offered a personalised plan which was devised to suit her needs. This involved nicorette patches, behavioural support and the incentives of the Love2Shops vouchers.
The support has helped Karolina to give up smoking completely since 1 September 2025, and she is now encouraging others to stub the cigarettes out.
She said:
Rebecca is an absolute superstar, I don’t think I would have been able to stop smoking without her help and support and she is never judgmental. I have been receiving Love2shop vouchers and this has really helped me to quit smoking as it is a nice incentive to have some extra money in exchange for not smoking."
According to the University of Edinburgh, a trial concluded that a high street voucher scheme helped double the number of people who stopped smoking during pregnancy in a UK-wide study. Moreover, figures show that every £1 invested in the scheme helps the NHS save £4.
Rebecca Eason said: “The introduction of the smoke-free pregnancy scheme has been a game-changer as we can see the real impact with the number of pregnant smokers drastically down.
“Smoking is an addiction but we want all of our babies to have the best start in life. We do this by providing individualised care to our patients, including face-to-face appointments before and after birth, providing nicotine replacement therapy and vapes and our incentive scheme.”
Karolina added that stopping smoking is the ‘most important’ thing a pregnant mum can do for their baby’s health.