Can secondhand smoke affect the health of my baby?
There are many women who have chosen not to smoke during pregnancy, or have never smoked, but they live with someone who smokes or they work in an environment where they are exposed to second-hand smoke. I would encourage them to consider that to be a serious threat to their unborn child. Second-hand smoke, to an adult, robs them of oxygen and can increase their airways. It is important during pregnancy to maintain healthy airways, and to maintain healthy airways especially as the child, as the foetus, and to constrict that airway, which is the space that you can breathe in. If you do not smoke through your pregnancy but are exposed to second-hand smoke, and after delivery your child continues to be exposed to second-hand smoke from someone else who lives in your home or an environment where they go for babysitting, you need to look carefully at what is going into the lungs of your child. Dad smoking can even increase the risk of those airway infections or even Sudden Infant Death syndrome if that toxic smoke environment is present in that child's life. This increased risk is especially evident in the very early weeks and months of their life.
