Fathers, Fertility and SmokingDads who smoke - the risks to your baby and your fertility
Your partner's pregnant. Great! But have you thought about the impact of your secondhand smoke?
If you expose your pregnant partner to secondhand smoke you're also exposing your baby to secondhand smoke, which contains thousands of toxic chemicals.
Becoming a father is an exciting and emotional time in your life. So it's a great opportunity for you to quit smoking - you can breathe more easily yourself, and give your baby a great start in life.
Secondhand smoke
- Exposing your unborn baby to your cigarette smoke increases the risk of your partner miscarrying, your baby being born prematurely or even stillborn.
- Smoking around your partner while she is pregnant also increases the chance of your baby having problems that could affect them for much longer � like allergies, asthma, wheezing, attention deficit disorder and even cot death.
- By smoking around your partner it also makes it harder for her to quit. But she needs to - for your baby and herself.
- Children exposed to secondhand smoke are at a greater risk of bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma attacks, meningitis and ear infections
- In 2011, children breathing in other people's cigarette smoke resulted in 300,000 GP visits and 9,500 hospital admissions in the UK.
- Children who grow up in a smoking household are three times more likely to become smokers themselves.
