Important note: This article is general information about restoring a home after a flood. It is not medical advice. Morning sickness, medicines, diet and precautions during pregnancy should be discussed directly with the doctor and nurses providing your antenatal care. If you have vaginal bleeding, severe abdominal pain, a fever, vomiting so severe you cannot keep food or fluids down, or you feel faint, go to hospital immediately or call 1669.

A story from the field: the smell that sent a mother-to-be running out of her own house

Khun Mint is 31 and lives with her husband in a single-storey detached house in an older housing estate in Bang Kraso subdistrict, Mueang Nonthaburi. She had just found out she was nine weeks pregnant. The news the whole family had been hoping for over two years arrived together with morning sickness far worse than she expected. She felt nauseous from the moment she woke up. The smell of freshly cooked rice, coffee, or even a colleague's perfume could send her rushing to the bathroom.

In early October 2026 the Chao Phraya River rose at the same time as several days of heavy rain. Water spread through the estate and into the house to a depth of about 30 centimeters. Her husband took her to stay at her mother's home on the other side of town, and the house was left for almost a week before the water finally went down.

On the day they returned to check, Khun Mint managed less than a minute inside before running out to be sick beside the fence. A damp, musty odor mixed with mud and drain smells filled the whole house. The fabric sofa in the living room had a tide mark across it. The wooden shoe cabinet had swollen so much it no longer closed. The bedroom wall had a row of small black spots along the old water line, and the wardrobe pushed against that wall gave every piece of clothing inside a stale, musty smell.

She wanted to help her husband clean up, but after ten minutes in the house she was dizzy and too nauseous to continue. She began to worry. Could mold and smells like this harm the baby? Was the disinfectant her husband was about to buy safe? And when would she be able to come back and live in her own home?

These are questions many families in Mueang Nonthaburi are facing after this year's flood, in Bang Kraso, Tha Sai, Suan Yai and the riverside neighborhoods along the Chao Phraya. When a mother-to-be is in the family, the usual "just roll up your sleeves and scrub" approach simply does not fit.

Why a house after the flood is so hard on a mother in early pregnancy

In the first trimester many women become far more sensitive to smells than usual. An odor that others find merely unpleasant can trigger immediate nausea or vomiting. A flooded house has every one of those smells: mustiness from mold, mud, drains, and the chemicals people use to clean it up.

• Mold and airborne spores. Walls, furniture and fabrics that stay damp grow mold within days. Spores float in the air and can cause a stuffy nose, coughing, sneezing or allergy flare-ups. If you already have allergies or asthma, mention it to your antenatal doctor.
• Germs carried by floodwater. Water that passed over roads and through drains leaves bacteria on floors and belongings, linked with diarrheal illness and skin infections.
• Leptospirosis. Rats escaping the water hide in houses, and their urine ends up in the water and mud. A mother-to-be should not wade through floodwater or mud barefoot, and should not be the one washing the mud away.
• Harsh chemicals. Strong bleach mixtures, or bleach combined with certain bathroom cleaners, can give off fumes that irritate the airways. That is bad for anyone, and especially unpleasant for someone already battling nausea.

The World Health Organization explains that the health risks of a flood continue after the water recedes, and that some groups are affected more than others. In a home with a pregnant woman, the heavy work involving mud, mold and chemicals should be done by other family members or by professionals.

What the family pays is more than the repair bill

Health and feelings. A mother who already has severe morning sickness eats even less and sleeps worse when she is stressed about the house. The constant worry about whether the baby is safe is a heavy emotional load.

Time. Staying with relatives for weeks means long commutes to work and to antenatal appointments. The husband shuttles between two homes and takes leave one day at a time to scrub the house.

Money. Damaged sofas, mattresses and wooden cabinets need replacing. If the cleaning is done the wrong way and mold comes back, there are repainting and wall repairs on top, just as the family is trying to save for a new baby.

Plans for the nursery. Many couples plan to set up the baby's room in a few months. If mold is still hiding in the house, the problem will follow them into the nursery.

Why the usual approach does not suit a home with an expectant mother

• Scrubbing the whole house with strong bleach. The sharp smell lingers for days, so she still cannot come home, and bleach does not reach inside wood and fabric.
• Incense, scented candles or air freshener. Strong fragrance layered over mustiness makes nausea worse and does nothing about the cause.
• Letting the mother help scrape mold or sort belongings. Scraping releases dust and spores. She should not be in the work area at all.
• Running fans to drive out the damp. It only helps the surface, spreads spores around, and leaves the musty smell in cabinets and cushions.
• Painting over black stains. If the wall is still damp the paint will bubble and the stains will return, and the smell of fresh paint is one more thing for her to endure.

Divide the work clearly: what the mother can do, and what others should do

What she can help with from a distance: make a list of items to keep, record damage from the photos her partner sends, contact the insurer or assistance agencies, and choose a date for the cleaning team that does not clash with antenatal appointments.

What others or professionals should do: wash out the mud, carry out wet belongings, pull up soaked rugs and cushions, scrape moldy walls, clean the bathroom and drains, and handle disinfection fogging and ozone treatment.

What usually has to go: mattresses, pillows, cushions and rugs soaked in floodwater, cardboard boxes, and dry food or kitchen items that got wet. Clothes that only picked up a musty smell can usually be washed in hot water according to the label and dried thoroughly in the sun.

Prenatal vitamins and medicines: if they got wet or damp, ask the pharmacist or doctor before taking them, and move them out of the house before the ozone treatment day.

The solution: ozone treatment for odors and Chemgene HLD4H disinfection fogging by the WHD team

World Health Disinfection (WHD) provides ozone treatment and disinfection fogging for homes after a flood. We work on a day when the mother is away and finish with thorough ventilation, so she comes back to a house with neither musty odor nor harsh chemical smell.

Closed-room ozone treatment lets ozone gas reach inside wardrobes, cushions, curtains and crevices no hand can reach. It breaks down odor molecules and destroys airborne mold spores. When the treatment time is over, ozone reverts to oxygen, leaving no synthetic fragrance behind.

Ultra-low-volume (ULV) fogging uses CHEMGENE HLD4H, a disinfectant used in healthcare settings that does not have the sharp smell of bleach. The fine mist reaches floors, lower walls, under furniture, bathrooms and high-touch points.

Used together, the two treatments cover different parts of the problem. Fogging deals with germs left on surfaces by the floodwater, in the places people touch, sit and walk barefoot. Ozone deals with what hangs in the air and soaks into soft materials: the spores and odor molecules that make the house smell stale long after it looks clean. For a mother whose nose picks up every trace of mustiness, tackling both is what makes the difference between a house that looks clean and a house she can actually live in comfortably.

Our process, designed so the mother never has to touch the heavy work

1. Survey with a family member. Her partner or a relative walks the team through the house. She does not need to come in. The team checks the water line, mold stains and smelly spots.
2. Clean-up advice. We tell you which items should go, where the mud must be completely washed out, and which repairs should be done first.
3. Disinfection fogging with Chemgene HLD4H across every area the water reached, including the bathroom, kitchen and entrance.
4. Closed-room ozone treatment, focusing on the bedroom, living room, wardrobes and the places where the smell is strongest.
5. Ventilation. Doors and windows are opened until no ozone smell remains.
6. Re-check before she returns. A family member goes in to check the smell and the old problem spots. If any corner still smells, the team advises on what to do next.

A tip many families use: let the mother come back first on a morning when the air is moving, with the windows open, and stay only a short while. If the smell does not trigger nausea, she can return for the whole day.

10 reasons families in Mueang Nonthaburi ask WHD for help before mom comes home

1. We schedule the work for a day when the mother is away, so she never touches mud, mold or chemicals.
2. Ozone treatment breaks down musty odor at its source instead of covering it with perfume.
3. No fragrance or harsh chemical smell is left to make morning sickness worse.
4. We use Chemgene HLD4H, a disinfectant used in healthcare settings.
5. Fine-mist fogging reaches corners, under beds and behind cabinets.
6. Wardrobes and cushions with trapped smells are handled with odor-removal ozone treatment.
7. Honest advice on which items should be thrown away.
8. Dust mite removal for new mattresses, ready for the day the baby arrives.
9. Advice on ongoing humidity control before you set up the nursery.
10. Easy contact by phone and LINE, so the mother can coordinate from wherever she is staying.

Before and after

A customer's voice (example scenario)

"My wife's morning sickness was so bad she was sick within a minute of walking in. So I had the team come while she was staying at her mother's. They fogged the house and then treated the whole place with ozone. The day I brought her back, she said she could not smell anything strange anymore, neither the mustiness nor any chemicals. That alone was a huge relief."

— A first-time father, Bang Kraso, Mueang Nonthaburi

A simple week-by-week plan for the partner

When one person is carrying most of the physical work, a written plan stops the job from feeling endless. Here is a simple outline many couples adapt to their own home.

• Days 1 to 2: photograph every room and the damage before touching anything. Wearing boots, gloves and a mask, carry out soaked mattresses, cushions, rugs and cardboard. Switch off the power to flooded circuits until an electrician has checked them.
• Days 3 to 4: wash the mud out of floors, the bathroom and the kitchen with clean water and detergent. Open every door and window during the day. Empty the wardrobe and shoe cabinet so clothes and shoes can be washed or aired separately.
• Days 5 to 6: let a builder deal with any walls that need scraping, cabinets that need removing and any repairs that create dust. Call WHD to survey the house and set a date for fogging and ozone treatment.
• Treatment day: make sure the mother, any children and pets are elsewhere, and that medicines and vitamins are out of the house. The team fogs and ozone-treats the house and then ventilates it.
• The next day: go in first, check the smell room by room, wipe down surfaces where you will eat and sleep, and then bring her back on a breezy morning for a short visit.

Every flood and every house is different, so the timeline may stretch, but having the steps written down means each day has a clear goal and the mother can see progress from wherever she is staying.

Thinking ahead to the nursery

For many couples, the most emotional part of the clean-up is the room that was meant to become the baby's nursery. It is tempting to rush out and buy new paint and furniture so the room feels hopeful again. A little patience pays off here. Walls that took on water can feel dry on the surface while still holding moisture deep inside, and paint or wallpaper applied too early can trap that moisture and invite mold back.

A sensible approach is to let the treated room sit empty and airy for a few weeks, check the lower walls and corners regularly for new spots or a returning musty smell, and only then plan painting and furniture. When you do paint, choose a time when the mother can stay away until the paint smell has gone, and ventilate well. If you are unsure whether the walls are truly dry, ask a builder to check, or ask our team to take another look during a re-check visit. A nursery set up in a genuinely dry, fresh room will be much easier to keep clean once the baby arrives.

Small things that make the first weeks back easier

Coming home after the flood is not a single moment, it is a few weeks of settling back in. For an expectant mother, small adjustments can make a big difference. Keep a window open in the rooms she uses most, especially in the morning, so fresh air keeps moving through the house. Choose unscented or very mildly scented detergents and cleaning products for the time being. Ask the family to cook strong-smelling dishes when she is out or with the kitchen window wide open. Keep a small bag of plain crackers and a water bottle by the bed, if her doctor has suggested that kind of thing for nausea.

It also helps to agree on who in the family is responsible for which follow-up job: checking the walls for new spots each week, emptying the dehumidifier if you use one, cleaning the air conditioner filter, and keeping an eye on the wardrobe and shoe cabinet. That way the mother can rest, and nobody has to remember everything alone.

Finally, keep a simple record of what was done: the dates of fogging and ozone treatment, what was thrown away and any repairs. If the doctor asks about the home environment during an antenatal visit, you will have clear answers ready instead of trying to piece it together from memory.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Is mold in the house dangerous for the baby?
A: Questions about effects on the pregnancy should go directly to your antenatal doctor. On the home side, the safe principle is for the mother to avoid moldy areas, repair dust and harsh chemicals until the house has been treated and properly ventilated.

Q: Can the mother stay inside while the team is working?
A: No. During both fogging and ozone treatment nobody should be in the house. She should stay somewhere else for the whole day of the work.

Q: Will ozone leave a smell that triggers morning sickness?
A: Ozone reverts to oxygen, and once the house has been ventilated enough there is no perfume left behind. We suggest a family member checks first and the mother returns the following day.

Q: Do clothes with a musty smell from the wardrobe have to be thrown away?
A: If they only smell and were not soaked in floodwater, most can be washed in hot water according to the label and dried thoroughly in the sun. The wardrobe itself is ozone-treated together with the room to remove the smell.

Q: When should we set up the nursery?
A: After the walls have dried completely and no musty smell or stains return. Keep checking humidity for a while before painting or buying new furniture.

Q: Can we clean with bleach ourselves?
A: Family members who are not pregnant can use it according to the label, diluted, never mixed with other products and with windows open, but the mother should not be in the house at that time.

Let mom-to-be come home to a house she can breathe in

Tell us there is an expectant mother in the family. The team will schedule the work for a day she is away and finish with proper ventilation.

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Call 065-556-6294 · LINE @whd268 · worldhealthdisinfection@gmail.com

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• External sources: WHO: Floods · Department of Health, Thailand