United Nations Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell warns that extreme heat is emerging as a potentially fatal threat to pregnant women, newborns, and maternal healthcare systems as climate change intensifies.
Stiell, speaking on Monday at the Birthright event in Suva, Fiji, said rising temperatures were increasingly linked to pregnancy complications, premature birth, stillbirth, and low birth weight.
The UN climate chief warned that pregnancy and childbirth were becoming a new fault line in the global climate crisis.
“The picture is clear and very disturbing: as extreme heat worsens, pregnancy and birth are now a new fault line in the global climate crisis, and one that is potentially fatal,” the UN official said.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the remarks came following a new survey commissioned by Wellcome of maternal health professionals across five countries on five continents.
The survey highlighted growing concern over the impact of extreme heat on maternal, fetal, and newborn health.
According to the survey cited in the speech, 73 percent of healthcare professionals reported that heat-linked cases or complications had increased over the past five years.
It also found that 81 percent of respondents were either concerned or very concerned that extreme heat would increasingly put maternal, fetal, and newborn health at risk without greater action.
Nearly all respondents—98 percent—said they had cared for a pregnant woman whose health they considered affected by extreme heat, while 99 percent reported caring for a baby affected by extreme heat.
Stiell said the figures represented more than statistics, pointing to the human consequences of extreme heat on expectant mothers, newborns, families, and healthcare workers.
“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.
“‘Staying cool’ is simply not an option when there is no cool place to go,” he said.
The UN official warned that climate change could deepen existing inequalities in access to safe pregnancy and childbirth, particularly for women living in vulnerable communities and countries that had contributed relatively little to global warming.
“A safe birth is already too often shaped by geography, income, and access to care. Without action, extreme heat will widen that injustice,” he said.
Stiell called for maternal and newborn health to be integrated into climate adaptation, heat and health planning.
He stressed that issues excluded from policy plans often lacked adequate funding, monitoring, or protection.
