High-income countries contribute the most to climate change, but the people who have contributed the least to the crisis are the most affected, with 91% of preterm birth deaths due to air pollution occurring in poor and middle-income countries, according to UN research. The recently released ‘Born Too Soon: Decade of Action on Preterm Birth’ report from WHO, UNICEF, and the Partnership for Maternal, New-born, and Child Health highlights the numerous direct and indirect effects of climate change on pregnancy, resulting in stillbirths, preterm birth, and small for gestational age.
According to scientists, climate change has an impact on pregnancy through heat exposure, storms, floods, drought, wildfires, and air pollution, as well as food insecurity, water or food borne diseases, vector borne diseases, migration, conflict, and health system resilience. More investment is needed, according to the research, to particularly decrease risks and to raise the focus on women and babies in policies and programmes addressing the climate emergency. Each year, air pollution is predicted to cause six million premature births. Climate change, according to the paper, has a negative impact on the perinatal period. It raises the risk of preterm delivery through direct channels such as air pollution induced by the combustion of fossil fuels, which raises the risk by 52% in asthmatic moms; high heat exposure, which raises the risk by 16%; and other extreme weather events such as drought.
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