The challenge of mothers learning about secondhand smoke (MLASS): a quasi-experimental, mixed methods feasibility study.

Background: Exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) in the antenatal and postnatal period is associated with a detrimental health impact to the foetus and newborn baby and is recognised as a preventable public health challenge. The aim of the mother's learning about secondhand smoke (MLASS) study was to test the feasibility of delivering and evaluating the effectiveness of a smoke-free homes (SFH) health education intervention in the antenatal and postnatal period to reduce foetal and newborn exposure to SHS.

Methods: Pregnant women aged 17-40 years old who attended their first community-based antenatal appointment in Leeds, UK, were eligible to participate if they currently smoked, or if they were non-smokers but lived in a household where someone else smoked, or had regular visitors to the home who smoked.

Seeking asylum and motherhood: health and wellbeing needs.

Pregnant asylum-seeking women and those with young babies living in initial accommodation centres are a highly vulnerable group. The care that these women receive during pregnancy, childbirth and in the postnatal period can have a lifelong impact on them and their babies. This study, conducted in June 2008, investigates the health and wellbeing needs of this group of women through holding in-depth consultations with professionals from the main organisations involved in their care and accommodation.