Q Can you settle a bet for us? I say more women than men now smoke. My mate disagrees, saying that more men than women have always smoked. Who is correct?

A In a way you both are, but the really worrying aspect of this is that more young women are now smoking than young men.

In fact smoking numbers are rising among young women.

The Office for National Statistics states that 21% of women aged between 16 and 24 are now smokers, up a percentage point from last year, the first increase since 2008.

That is now more than the overall smoking rate in men, which is at its lowest ever at 20.4%.

It seems that the tobacco industry is managing to keep its hold on young women.

The rise may be partly due to the success of ‘vaping’.

Although older people are using vaping to stop smoking, apparently younger women in particular are starting on vaping, then progressing to cigarettes.

If only they could come to terms with the damage that cigarettes inevitably does to their lungs and other organs – then no one would be so careless or reckless as to smoke.

Q My wife has been told that she must have a Caesarian delivery of our first baby because of medical complications. We are happy about that, but we have heard that American women are offered a treatment called vaginal seeding at the birth. Could you explain its pros and cons please?

A There is a vogue for women about to have Caesarian births to place a sterile swab inside the vagina before the birth, and then wipe the baby’s face with it immediately afterwards.

The idea is that this will give the baby his or her normal contact with the vaginal bacteria, in the same way as a vaginally delivered baby would normally do so.

Before birth the babies’ digestive tract (the small and large bowel) is bacteria-free, and they have to develop a healthy ‘population’ of bacteria so that they can digest foods normally.

Missing out on that first contact with their mothers’ vaginal bacteria because of a Caesarian delivery, it has been suggested, can lead to babies having digestive difficulties later.

However, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) of 27th February carries a report that there’s no evidence yet that this ‘vaginal seeding’ confers any benefit to the infant, and that there is a small risk of harm to the baby from germs that the mother may be carrying in her vagina that give her no symptoms, but can be serious health problems to the baby.

They include thrush (candida), herpes, chlamydia and streptococci.

The BMJ’s advice is that staff in hospitals should not use vaginal seeding, although if the mothers wish to do it themselves the staff should respect their wishes, while explaining the risks against the perceived benefits. I’m happy to follow the BMJ’s advice.