UN climate chief urges heat protections for mothers and newborns

UN climate chief Simon Stiell called on governments to make maternal and newborn health a priority in climate adaptation and heat-response plans, warning that rising temperatures are adding risks to pregnancy and childbirth. He made the appeal at a Birthright event in Fiji on October 5, citing a survey of health professionals in five countries who reported treating pregnant women and babies they believed had been affected by extreme heat. The Wellcome-commissioned survey of 1,001 maternal-health professionals in Australia, Brazil, India, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe found that 98% had cared for a pregnant woman whose health they believed was affected by extreme heat. Ninety-nine percent said they had cared for a foetus or newborn they believed had been affected. The findings reflect respondents’ clinical experience and professional judgments; the survey did not establish that heat caused individual complications or measure how common such outcomes are across the wider population. In a separate finding, 73% of professionals reported increases over the previous five years in heat-related maternal cases or complications.