Mothers who swim during pregnancy increase their child's risk of eczema and asthma, scientists warn

Pregnant mothers who regularly attend swimming classes may be increasing the risk of their child developing an allergic condition.
Scientists believe that commonly-found airborne chemicals, such as chlorine from pools and compounds found in cleaning products could be behind the five-fold increase in inherited allergies during the past 50 years.
Exposure to these chemicals may be altering an unborn child’s immune system, leaving them more sensitive to conditions such as eczema, asthma and hay fever.

Allergy risk? Scientists believe swimming while pregnant may expose unborn babies to chemicals which change their immune systems

The warning comes from a report in the British Journal of Dermatology that looks at the growing prevalence of these ‘atopic allergies’.
One theory, known as the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, is that an excessively clean lifestyle has resulted in a generation of children developing immune systems unfamiliar with many germs.