and evaluated. Consequently, the everyday lives and experi-
ences of the public have played little part in the formulation
of policies and subsequent practice of public health. This
review has provided a gateway through which the mid-
wifery, nursing, and policy community can gain insight into
how the circumstances of women’s lives influence their
smoking behaviour in pregnancy and in doing so has identi-
fied key issues of relevance to practitioners and policy mak-
ers. There are now an accepted set of methods for
searching, assessing, and integrating qualitative evidence
across diverse settings and it is an approach that we would
encourage other qualitative researchers to use