For Dads

If your partner is pregnant or breastfeeding, or you are planning a baby, now is the time for you to quit for good.

Smoking around pregnant women

Exhaled tobacco smoke contains chemicals that are harmful to people around you. If a pregnant woman inhales this smoke, a number of these chemicals will enter her bloodstream and pass on to the unborn baby. For example, carbon monoxide (which is found in cigarette smoke) reduces the amount of oxygen available to both her and the baby. Other chemicals can increase the baby’s heart rate and limit the
baby’s growth.

Smoking around a pregnant woman may lead to a greater chance of:
• Miscarriage
• Birth complications
• Premature birth
• Having an underweight baby, making them more vulnerable to infections and health problems in adulthood
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

MEN’S BUSINESS Smoking can affect the health of your sperm meaning when you want to have a baby it can be difficult and your baby may not be as healthy. The toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke also affects the penis. It can effects the blood flow and damage the blood vessels of the penis which could affect your performance in the bedroom.

If dad smokes it can have a negative impact on the chances of the pregnant woman to stop smoking. Also if there is smoking inside the house it will expose the woman and baby to secondhand smoke. 

Partners, other family members or friends may wish to use this as an opportunity to stop smoking themselves.

There are many reasons to quit smoking and there is no better time to quit than when there is a baby on the way or you are planning a pregnancy. Quitting will not only protect your health but it will protect the health of your baby.

Second Hand Smoking (Passive Smoking):

Is breathing in the smoke from a burning cigarette or the smoke that someone breathes out when smoking

Even small amounts of exposure to tobacco smoke can be harmful to children and in adults who do not smoke.

Smoking in another room with the door closed and fan on or window open still puts your kids at risk

A smoke-free environment (home and car) is the only way to fully protect non-smokers from the dangers of second-hand smoke.

Third hand smoking

Is residue and chemicals from cigarette smoke that’s absorbed into walls, floor, furniture, clothes, skin and hair after the cigarette has been put out.

Poisons from smoking land on the smokers clothes for baby to breathe in or suck on and ingest. Even outside, cigarette smoke can drift through the air where you don’t see it.

Smoking in the car fills the seats with poisons even if the car windows are open

If you are going to hold the baby:

• Put a shirt or jacket over your normal clothes when you smoke. Then take it off before you hold the baby.
• Wash your hands and face after every cigarette

What you can do to make a smoke-free environment for your family

For tips on making your home and car smoke free plus lots of free resource downloads click here

How have other dads quit in my community?

To read their stories – what motivated them to quit and how they quit for good click here