Climate crisis worsening already high levels of maternal and newborn mortality: Experts
Cape Town, Scientists have disclosed that in developed countries nine out of ten pre-term babies survive while in developing countries the reverse is true. This comes after the World Health Organisation (WHO) disclosed that the climate crisis is fueling respiratory diseases (including risk of asthma due to heat and air pollution), gastrointestinal disease, increased infant mortality due to extreme heat and the spread vector-borne diseases that are killing mothers and their babies at an alarming rate . “Young children are particularly vulnerable to under-nutrition associated with climate-related events,” Elena Villalobos Prats from the department of climate change and health at WHO said. “Reduction of the 4.5 percent of global carbon emissions due to healthcare including the over 70 percent of health footprint that is from supply chain procurement.” While agreeing , the Partnership for Maternal Newborn and Child (PMNCH) who released data linking climate change to preterm births pointed out that the remarkable progress achieved for maternal and child survival in the past decades was not due to the health sector alone. “Between 1990 and 2010, 50 percent of the global mortality reduction in children aged under five years was attributable to investments outside of the health sector and since the launch of the first Born Too Soon report, the importance of intersectoral action in health has been emphasized in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030), both launched in 2015.” “In turn, these physiological changes may decrease uterine oxygen and induce labor. There is evidence that extreme temperatures, mostly extreme heat, increase the risk of stillbirth during the third trimester of pregnancy, this is especially the case amongst women in low socioeconomic groups.” Pregnant women are additionally vulnerable to heat-related illness and death. Newborns are especially heat-sensitive even compared to other children.,” Ms Nguku explained. “ Extreme heat exposure during pregnancy is linked with increased rates of pre-term birth, low-birth weight and still-birth.”