Are my neighbour's smells harmful?

[MissTwister]

We have new next door neighbours and before they move in properly they've decided to redecorate. I came home from work on Friday and our house stinks of the paint and whatever else they've been using. We are a terraced half house so I assume the smell is just coming through the floors/walls (we used to sometimes smell if next door were cooking strong food smells too). I was actually away yesterday but today have come back and it still smells strongly. I've opened windows as much as possible considering it's freezing but my question is do you think this is actually dangerous for me to be breathing in as I am quite worried about it - I am 13 weeks pregnant. Any advice appreciated!

Does anyone have any thoughts?

Erm....you get told not to use strong cleaners etc....but I decorated before I found out I was pregnant with dc2 and shes fine....a bit of a terror...but fine. Speak to midwife and see what she says

I wouldn't worry unduly for these reasons:

I know mums who decorated their own houses after they were pregnant. Babies were fine.

I seem to think that after 12 weeks is a lower risk time anyway, maybe because the placenta is developed?

Modern paints do contain chemicals still but I'd hope not enough for a single exposure to be a problem, otherwise there would be a lot of poorly babies.

They painted my office when I was 20 weeks pregnant, so I enjoyed my new office smell with new paintwork and carpets because really there wasn't much else I could do. I mentioned a bit of worry to my boss and she gave me a very withering look!

thanks for your thoughts, my husband thinks I am worryingly unnecessarily since there's not actually any paint in our house! I have all windows open and jumpers on....

I've been decorating my new house all weekend so been exposed to paint and all sorts. From guidance online it just says make sure rooms are well ventilated so I'm sure you'll be fine in the next house along! Most paint nowadays is low odour / non toxic so I doubt you're at any risk!

I doubt the smell all the way from your neighbors house will cause harm to your baby, I'm pretty sure tens of thousands of people decorate their baby's nurseries each year and no harm have come of their babies....

It's more likely that it's just the smell rather than the chemicals you're exposed to. I'd check with your midwife to put your mind at rest but most paint is fine these days. We decorated our whole house whilst I was pregnant, we just made sure it was well ventilated, the paint smell did hang around for ages though and we just forgot about it after a while.

Thanks all you've put my mind at ease. I don't think I will bother midwife as it's happened now and smell has pretty much gone. I wouldn't even know how to contact her actually outside of appointments! Do other people talk to theirs regularly?