Heat, air pollution and natural disasters all have been shown to impact maternal and fetal health. Climate and health expert Kristie Ebi says we can take more measures to protect those affected.
A recently released installment of a report, focused on climate impacts, adaptation and vulnerabilities, included a new section detailing the risks pregnant people face in a changing climate.
Heat, air pollution and natural disasters all have been shown to impact maternal and fetal health. Climate and health expert Kristie Ebi says we can take more measures to protect those affected.
Mother’s Day in the United States is typically associated with spring, and new life.
But because of the climate crisis, Mother’s Day also heralds hotter summers with more and longer heat waves, worsening North Atlantic hurricane season, and terrifying wildfires in the months ahead. An increasingly important public health event – Heat Awareness Day – follows on May 31.
Climate impacts are expected to be more extreme again this year and threaten to worsen the maternal health crisis in the US. That crisis is marked by unjust inequities in maternal mortality, illness, and premature birth; with worse rates for Black, Indigenous, and other women of color than white women, and for women living in poverty compared to the better-off.
HRW: ‘Climate Crisis’ Threatens Maternal Health in the U.S.
6 May 2021
Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned Thursday extreme weather events caused by global warming pose a dire threat to maternal health in the U.S. especially for “women of color.”
“Climate impacts are expected to be more extreme again this year and threaten to worsen the maternal health crisis in the US,” writes Skye Wheeler of HRW’s Women’s Rights Division.
“That crisis is marked by unjust inequities in maternal mortality, illness, and premature birth,” Wheeler asserts, “with worse rates for Black, Indigenous, and other women of color than white women, and for women living in poverty compared to the better-off.”