Women need to be told the truth about the dangers of smoking while pregnant in order to save their babies’ lives.

That was the message from TV midwife Lisa Fendall when she joined other health professionals in Medway at an event aimed at driving down the number of expectant mums who smoke.

Of the 908 births in Medway between April and June 2016, 15.7% or 143 women were smokers at the time of delivery.

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The national average is just 10.2% and Medway has the 27th highest figure out of 209 CCGs in England.

Out of the clinical commissioning groups in Kent, NHS Medway has the fourth highest number of women smoking when they give birth behind NHS Thanet (18.4%), NHS Swale (19.7%) and NHS South Kent Coast (19.9%).

Speaking after the conference, Mrs Fendall said: “One of the key messages from today is we need to be honest with women. We need to continue to tell women what the harms are of smoking in pregnancy because it’s not accurate to assume that women know what those risks are.

Watch: Lisa Fendall on the dangers of smoking while pregnant

“Many women are saying, I didn’t really understand, I didn’t know the bad bits about smoking, nobody ever really told me the truth before, and they actually welcome that honest conversation.”

Smoking during pregnancy can cause serious health problems including complications during labour and an increased risk of miscarriage, premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight and sudden unexpected death in infancy.

Mrs Fendall said: “Of all the thing we can offer pregnant women to talk to them about, smoking is the most important.

“It’s absolutely one of the worst things that anybody can do but many women out there do not understand the risks, they aren’t aware of the support and help that’s available and they face many, many barriers to quitting and as health professionals it’s our job to try and break down those barriers.”

Professionals who work with mums-to-be in Medway came together to share their stories and ideas on how to tackle the problem at Medway Maritime Hospital’s postgraduate centre lecture theatre on Tuesday.

There were a number of speakers including Mrs Fendall, hospital chief executive Lesley Dwyer, fetal medicine consultant Prof Ranjit Akolekar, and members of Medway Council’s Stop Smoking service.

Cllr David Brake, chairman of Medway’s health and wellbeing board, said: “We recognise here in Medway, that we do have a problem with smoking and there’s an awful lot we are doing to encourage people to stop.

“We have the Stop Smoking shop which is proving to be very popular and we go into schools and all parts of the community to encourage people to stop.

“I say encourage because we don’t want to beat people with a stick, we really want to encourage people to stop smoking for the benefit of their health as well as their family.

“Some very interesting work has come out of today and we will be picking up on many of the things that have been said with a view to introducing them in Medway.”