ABSTRACT
The study of mothers on income support is drawn from a larger survey of smoking patterns among lone and cohabiting mothers caring for babies of six months old (Graham 1993). The original survey was drawn from the records of two maternity hospitals and included White and African-Caribbean mothers in households where the head of household was either unemployed/ economically inactive or was employed in a manual occupation.1 The majority (96 per cent) of the mothers identified themselves as White. Among the mothers who took part in the study, 242 were dependent, in whole or in part, on income support.2 It is this group of mothers whose lives and lifestyles are the focus of this and the subsequent section.
