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The United Nations has warned that extreme heat is becoming a potentially fatal threat to pregnant women and newborns, with rising temperatures increasingly associated with pregnancy complications, premature births, stillbirths and low birth weight as climate change intensifies.
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A new survey of maternal health professionals across five countries shows that the danger is already being witnessed in healthcare facilities.
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About 73 percent of respondents said heat-related cases or complications had increased over the past five years, while 98 percent had treated pregnant women whose health they believed had been affected by extreme heat. Healthcare professionals are also seeing the effects on newborns, with 99 percent of those surveyed reporting that they had cared for babies affected by extreme heat.
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The UN is demanding that governments make maternal and newborn health a central part of climate adaptation and heat-response planning, including investment in resilient hospitals, reliable water and power supplies, trained health workers, heat alerts, better data and increased climate adaptation finance.
October 05, (THEWILL) – The United Nations has raised the alarm over the growing threat extreme heat poses to pregnant women and newborns, warning that intensifying climate change is turning pregnancy and childbirth into a potentially fatal frontier of the global climate crisis.
UN Climate Change Executive Secretary, Simon Stiell, said on Monday that rising temperatures were increasingly being linked to serious pregnancy and newborn complications, including premature births, stillbirths and low birth weight.
Stiell issued the warning at the Birthright event in Suva, Fiji, where he described the impact of extreme heat on mothers and babies as a rapidly developing crisis that governments could no longer afford to overlook.
“The picture is clear and very disturbing: as extreme heat worsens, pregnancy and birth are now a new fault line in the global climate crisis, and one which is potentially fatal”, he said.
His warning followed a new survey commissioned by Wellcome involving maternal health professionals across five countries on five continents.
The survey revealed widespread concern among healthcare professionals over the effects of extreme temperatures on maternal, fetal and newborn health.
According to findings cited by Stiell, 73 percent of healthcare professionals surveyed said heat-related cases or complications had increased over the past five years.
The concern extended beyond pregnant women. Some 81 percent of respondents said they were either concerned or very concerned that extreme heat would increasingly endanger maternal, fetal and newborn health without stronger action.
Nearly all respondents (98 percent) said they had cared for a pregnant woman whose health they believed had been affected by extreme heat. Similarly, 99 percent said they had cared for a baby affected by extreme heat.
For Stiell, the figures demonstrate that the climate threat is no longer an abstract environmental problem but one increasingly being encountered by families and health workers.
‘Staying Cool’ Not An Option For Many
The UN official warned that telling pregnant women to avoid excessive heat or “stay cool” was inadequate where basic infrastructure was unavailable. He said millions of vulnerable people live or work in conditions where escaping extreme temperatures is simply not possible.
“Someone working outdoors, living in unregulated housing, travelling far to a clinic, or relying on facilities without water, power or cooling, cannot be protected by advice alone. Staying cool is simply not an option when there is no cool place to go”, Stiell said.
He warned that climate change could further widen existing inequalities in access to safe pregnancy and childbirth.
Women living in poorer and vulnerable communities are particularly exposed where homes lack adequate ventilation or cooling, healthcare facilities have unreliable electricity and water, and pregnant women must travel long distances to obtain medical care.
Stiell said the situation was especially unjust because many of the communities most exposed to the consequences of climate change had contributed relatively little to global warming.
“A safe birth is already too often shaped by geography, income and access to care. Without action, extreme heat will widen that injustice”, he said.
Stiell called for maternal and newborn health to be integrated directly into climate adaptation strategies and national heat-health plans. He warned that issues not expressly included in government plans were often excluded from funding, monitoring and protection.
“What is not named in a plan is too often not funded, not measured and not protected”, he said.
Stiell identified three immediate priorities: incorporating pregnancy and newborn care into climate adaptation and heat-health plans; translating scientific evidence into practical protection for mothers and babies; and improving data collection and analysis to identify emerging risks and determine which interventions work.
The measures, he said, should include climate-resilient healthcare facilities, dependable water and electricity supplies, properly trained health workers, clearer medical guidance, heat-alert systems and health services prepared before extreme heat emergencies occur.
Call For Stronger Data, Finance
The UN climate chief also called for stronger data systems to establish where climate-related maternal and newborn health risks were increasing, identify the communities facing the greatest exposure and determine where financing and technology were most urgently needed.
“Harm that is not counted is too easily ignored”, he said, as he urged countries to deliver on the tripling of adaptation finance agreed at COP30 in Brazil and called on governments and the wider financial system to work towards mobilising $1.3 trillion annually for developing countries.
According to Stiell, such funding is required to strengthen systemic resilience and accelerate the transition towards clean, affordable and secure energy, which he described as essential to effective healthcare systems.
He welcomed the Birthright Campaign by Wellcome and work by the World Health Organisation on maternal health and climate change, saying the initiatives could help address existing gaps in protecting mothers and newborns.
He also cited the Belém Gender Action Plan and Belém Adaptation Indicators as mechanisms that could strengthen gender-responsive climate action, data collection, financing, participation and monitoring of progress towards climate-resilient health services.
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Background
Extreme heat is one of the most visible consequences of a warming climate, but its implications for pregnancy and newborn health have received less attention in public climate discussions.
Pregnancy places additional physiological demands on the body, making prolonged exposure to excessive heat a particular concern. At the same time, maternity services depend heavily on reliable electricity, water, transport, trained personnel and functioning healthcare infrastructure — all of which can be placed under additional pressure during extreme weather.
The threat is, therefore, not limited to the temperature experienced by an expectant mother. It extends to whether she can access a functioning clinic, whether the facility has electricity and water, and whether health workers have the resources and information required to respond to heat-related complications.
Stiell said governments must treat the issue as a matter of basic human protection rather than accepting unsafe pregnancy and childbirth as an inevitable consequence of climate change.
“A changing climate must never be accepted as a reason pregnancy and birth become less safe. The newborn’s healthy start must never depend on a family’s ability to escape the heat”, he said.
He urged governments, health authorities, climate policymakers, financial institutions and other stakeholders to act before the effects of extreme heat become entrenched in maternity wards and vulnerable communities.
“This work is urgent, deeply human, and we all share the responsibility to drive it forward together”, Stiell concluded.
Felix Ifijeh is a journalist with years of professional reporting experience. Known for his keen news sense, compelling storytelling and commitment to accurate, impactful reporting, he has built a reputation for turning leads into clear, engaging, and well-structured reports that resonate with readers. His work reflects deep newsroom experience and a commitment to accurate, impactful journalism.
