A new campaign aiming to stop pregnant women from smoking has been launched by the NHS.

The campaign will show pregnant women how smoking can affect a child’s health and growth.

Backing the campaign, Dr Miriam Stoppard said: "Pregnant women who smoke do not automatically find it easy to stop smoking as soon as they become pregnant, often hiding their smoking rather than asking for help to quit, because they feel that they will be criticised.

Pregnancy can be a particularly difficult time to stop smoking - and rather than stigmatising these women, we should be guiding them to their local NHS Stop Smoking Service for expert advice and support to help them quit."

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the popularity of direct health benefits is higher than health insurance.

According to a recent study by Aon, there are more Brits are seeking long-term sick leave employee benefits rather than health insurance.

The head of healthcare of Aon, Alex Bennett said: "At a time when workers are worried about their financial futures, it is no surprise that rather than concentrate on staying healthy they focus on how they are going to manage in the event that they do become sick."