Offering expectant mothers vouchers totalling £400 were the most effective, in a study that involved 600 women from Glasgow.
Over 20% of the women given vouchers stopped smoking, compared to just 9% who were given the normal level of NHS support.
The financial incentive group were given the money over a number of weeks, so long as they could prove through breath and urine tests that they were smoke-free.
Researches in charge of the study say that despite the scheme sounding expensive, it is cost-effective, because smoking during pregnancy increase the risk of miscarriage and stillbirth.
However, many have criticised the scheme as being ‘bribery.’
Almost 20% of women in Scotland smoke at the time of delivery, almost 10% more than the figure elsewhere in the UK.
‘Many of these mothers have inadequate housing, difficult relationships, low self-esteem and only enough income to subsist.’
‘The money, albeit in the form of vouchers, often lifts the pressure,’ said the researchers.