Climate Change Is Becoming a Pregnancy Hazard Worldwide, Survey Finds

A community health worker examines a pregnant woman inside her home while family members look on, highlighting the growing challenges mothers face as extreme heat and climate-related pressures strain access to healthcare in vulnerable communities. Credit: Wellcomeby Umar Manzoor Shah (suva, fiji & srinagar, india)Monday, October 05, 2026Inter Press Service SUVA, Fiji & SRINAGAR, India, October 5 (IPS) - Extreme heat is increasingly threatening pregnant women and newborn babies around the world, with almost all maternal health professionals surveyed across five continents saying they have cared for women or infants whose health was affected by high temperatures. The findings, released as climate ministers gathered in the Pacific ahead of the COP31 climate summit, provide an extremely distressing picture of how global heating is affecting maternity wards, delivery rooms and newborn-care units. A survey of 1,001 healthcare professionals in Australia, Brazil, India, the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe found that 98 percent had personally cared for a pregnant woman whose health they believed was adversely affected by extreme heat.Some 99 percent said they had cared for a foetus or n...