New Delhi: Extreme heat is already placing growing pressure on pregnant women, babies and maternity services, according to a new international survey of 1,000 maternal healthcare professionals.
It found that across Australia, Brazil, India, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe, 73% of those surveyed reported an increase in heat-related cases or complications related to extreme heat affecting pregnant women over the past five years. The survey was commissioned by Wellcome – a global charitable foundation – and released on Monday.
In a statement, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said, “New data out today – is both compelling and deeply worrying – The picture is clear and very disturbing: as extreme heat worsens, pregnancy and birth are now a new faultline in the global climate crisis, and one which is potentially fatal.”
In the survey, 76% of the respondents reported an increase in heat-related cases affecting foetal or newborn health.
More than four in five respondents (81 %) are either concerned or very concerned that extreme heat will increasingly put maternal, foetal and newborn health at risk without more action.
Nearly all respondents have cared for a pregnant woman (98%) or baby (99%) whose health they consider was affected by extreme heat, the survey found.
“Behind those numbers are human stories: an expectant mother’s journey to clinic delayed by dangerous heat; a midwife working through unsafe temperatures; a newborn needing specialist care – often in scant supply in vulnerable nations; a family wracked with worry,” said Stiell, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
He added, “A safe birth is already too often shaped by geography, income and access to care. Without action, extreme heat will widen that injustice. We cannot let worsening climate impacts become permanent pitfalls for maternity wards and families everywhere.”
