Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to increase awareness among potential parents and pregnant mothers of the importance of a healthy lifestyle for the health of the unborn child.

Start4Life is the Government’s social marketing programme encouraging the adoption of healthy behaviours amongst parents-to-be and parents with children up to age five. During pregnancy Start4Life encourages healthy eating, physical activity, taking supplements, giving up smoking, avoiding alcohol and looking after yourself.

In addition to the web-site, Start4life publishes a suite of leaflets, and provides access to more than a hundred videos with National Health Service approved content.

The Start4Life Information Service for Parents was launched on 18 May 2012, and provides new and expectant parents with emails and texts with high quality NHS advice and information based on the stage of pregnancy and the age of the child. As of the start of November the service has signed up more than 390,000 people.