Extreme Heat and Maternal Health
Extreme heat has made pregnancy and birth a “new faultline” in the global climate crisis, UN Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said on Monday. He cited a survey in which 73% of maternal health professionals, including those in India, reported a rise in heat-linked cases or complications over the past five years.
“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,” Stiell said. He was speaking at the launch of the Birthright campaign on the first day of the Pre-COP ministerial meeting in Fiji.
The survey covered 1,000 maternal health professionals in Australia, Brazil, India, the UK and Zimbabwe, across five continents. It is part of a new initiative led by Wellcome and partners that carries global calls to action to protect women, babies, health systems and health workers from extreme heat.
Also Read: Extreme heat demands public health interventions and income loss safeguards
Wellcome is a health-focused global foundation. It has commissioned the survey and is leading the Birthright campaign. Its chair, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is scheduled to speak at the launch event, titled “Birthright! A global call to action to protect pregnant women from global heating”.
{{/usCountry}}Wellcome is a health-focused global foundation. It has commissioned the survey and is leading the Birthright campaign. Its chair, former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is scheduled to speak at the launch event, titled “Birthright! A global call to action to protect pregnant women from global heating”.
{{/usCountry}}Stark findings
Nearly all respondents (98%) have cared for a pregnant woman whose health they believe was affected by extreme heat, and 99% have cared for an affected baby.
More than four in five (81%) are concerned or very concerned that heat will increasingly put maternal, fetal and newborn health at risk without more action.
Wellcome’s materials add that every 1°C rise in temperature correlates with a 5% increase in premature births and a 7% increase in gestational diabetes.
For women, Stiell said extreme heat during pregnancy is increasingly linked to premature birth, stillbirth, low birth weight and maternal complications. The risks, he said, reach newborns too, at the most fragile point of life.
“Someone working outdoors, living in unregulated housing, travelling far to a clinic, or relying on facilities without water, power or cooling, cannot be protected by advice alone,” Stiell said.
“’Staying cool’ is simply not an option when there is no cool place to go,” he said.
“A safe birth is already too often shaped by geography, income and access to care. Without action, extreme heat will widen that injustice”, he added.
Three priorities
Countries should write pregnancy and newborn care into adaptation and heat planning, turn evidence into protection through alerts, training and safer facilities, and measure the harm.
Money matters
The tripling of adaptation finance agreed at COP30 in Brazil must be delivered, he said, and nations must work with the whole financial system to make $1.3 trillion a year for developing countries a reality. Without it, he warned, this faultline could become “another deep chasm of climate-driven suffering, inequality and injustice.”
Rising temperatures
The last eleven years set records, Stiell said, and El Nino conditions show how quickly heat can intensify, with fossil fuels still burned overwhelmingly in G20 economies.
Pre-COP runs from 5 to 8 October, co-hosted by Fiji and Australia, with a Leaders’ event in Tuvalu. Ministers and delegates from more than 50 countries are preparing for COP31 in Antalya, Turkiye. COP31 President Murat Kurum said, “Promises do not hold back the sea or shield homes from the fire. Only delivery can save us.”
Before the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world was on course for 4°C of warming, and renewables made up 23% of global generation. Projected warming is now 2.6°C, and renewables supply more than 34% of electricity, according to International Energy Agency figures cited by the Australian COP31 team.