The price of climate change increases day by day. Every year the damage caused by extreme climate to the environment, to biodiversity but also to human Health occurs. A series of studies have recently been presented at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference that highlight growing concern about the effects of climate change on reproductive health. Particularly in vulnerable regions.
According to information just published in The Guardian, the increasing risks of disease and harm to pregnant women, fetuses and newborns driven by climate change are believed to threaten to reverse the progress made in recent decades in maternal and reproductive health. Discover the details!
The price of extreme weather
The report presented at COP29 arises following an ultimatum from the UN Secretary General on the climate emergency, where it was stated that governments must quickly wean the world from its addiction to fossil fuels.
According to the information presented, fossil fuel emissions continue to increase, causing land and oceans to reach record levels last year. This not only increases the possibility of experiencing extreme weather events, affecting biodiversity, the economy and, in turn, the infrastructure of communities; also and by domino effect it affects people’s lives.
Talking about the effects of extreme weather on human health is talking about multiple factors that involve all spheres of society. Climate change may indirectly affect maternal reproductive health. According to the report, the increase in extreme weather events is causing more infant deaths, premature births and cognitive damage in newborns.
Socioeconomic conditions influence
Rising temperatures reduce, for example, the availability of food and water. This means that mothers, in precarious social conditions, have to travel further in hot conditions, thus experiencing a delay in recovery from childbirth.
“Global temperatures continue to break records, compounding threats to maternal health. If no action is taken, the consequences could be catastrophic.”
emilah Mahmood of the Sunway Center for Planetary Health in Malaysia.
A study found that floods are responsible for more than 100,000 spontaneous abortions a year in 33 countries in South and Central America, Asia and Africa, with women with lower incomes and educational levels at greatest risk. Rising heat also increases intimate partner violence suffered by women, according to an analysis from South Asia.
The collapse of health services, sanitation and food supplies during extreme weather conditions exacerbates the problems of pregnant women. The report cites a recent analysis that concluded that global warming would push billions of people out of the “climate niche” of habitable temperatures in which humanity has thrived for millennia.
Another study in India found that the risk of miscarriage in pregnant women experiencing heat stress was double, while another study in California found a significant association between prolonged heat exposure and stillbirth and premature birth.
However, only 27 of the 119 national climate plans submitted to the UN include actions related to mothers and newborns, making this a major “blind spot,” the report notes.
How will it be dealt with?
Solutions to address the effects of climate change on reproductive health and sexual safety cannot be separated from rights-based approaches that are gender-transformative and promote justice. Women of color, with low levels of income and education, face greater impacts from climate change and have limited access to health care services, meaning they face disproportionate challenges to their reproductive health and sexual safety.
Entrenched gender norms restrict pregnant women from changing harmful practices (for example, collecting firewood and water) even in extreme heat. Increasing women’s rights to participate in decision-making processes will assist in the formulation of policies, programs and standards to protect reproductive health and sexual safety from the impacts of climate change.
The report concluded that global warming would push billions of people out of the “climate niche” of habitable temperatures in which humanity has thrived for millennia.