MUM of three Catherine Anderson is joining a stop smoking campaign to get expectant mums to kick the habit.

The 39-year-old from Highworth battled to quit smoking since discovering she was expecting twins.

She took up smoking after quitting once before when her son Jenson, four, was just six months old.

This time around she was determined not to fall into the same trap.

“When I found out I was pregnant with the twins, I just knew I had to stop for their benefit,” said Catherine – who used to smoke ten cigarettes a day.

“I'd managed to stop smoking all by myself when I was pregnant with Jenson.

“But this time, I knew I couldn't do it on my own.”

A national campaign was launched yesterday and aims to support mums-to-be to help them quit smoking.

Swindon’s NHS Stop Smoking service will be highlighting the range of services available to pregnant women including one-to-one home visits and one-to-one or group support sessions with trained advisors.

Catherine – proud mum of four-month-old twins Marcus and Holly – has been a non-smoker for eight months and vows that this time it is for good.

She said: “My midwife put me in touch with Geraldine O’Driscoll, a stop smoking adviser based at the Great Western Hospital.

“I had been a little apprehensive because I thought that she might be critical of me, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.

“Geraldine was so friendly and instantly gave me the confidence that I would be able to succeed.

“We arranged that she would conduct our sessions at my house, which obviously made it more convenient for me when I became more heavily pregnant.

“My carbon monoxide levels were monitored in my first session and it was so scary to see how much I had in my body, because I’d only had two cigarettes that day.”

Cigarettes restrict the essential oxygen supply to the baby, so its tiny heart must beat harder every time its mother smokes.

The good news is that stopping smoking will benefit the baby immediately and after two days of being smoke free, all nicotine will have left the mother and baby’s bodies.

Catherine added: “Geraldine has done me a huge favour and has become a good friend.

“It’s so good to know that she’s on the other end of the phone if I ever get the urge to have a cigarette and I need someone to tell me to stop.

“I can’t say it’s been easy, but I had the best reason in the world to do so. I had to do it for the twins and for Jenson, so it was definitely a case of mind over matter.”