Unborn children at higher risk of respiratory infections after Morwell fire, study finds

Impacts of climate change on pregnant women must be considered as threat of bushfires increases

Unborn babies whose mothers breathed in smoke from a major coalmine fire in Victoria in 2014 were more likely to suffer respiratory infections in their early childhood, according to a new study.

Coughing, wheezing and diagnosed cases of respiratory infections all went up among 79 children tracked between two and four years after the fire that choked the town of Morwell in February and March 2014.