Extreme Heat is Increasing Pregnancy Risks Around the World: Study

Nearly one-third of countries which were studied experienced at least one additional month’s worth of high-risk days on average annually.

A new report warned that extreme heat — driven by human-caused climate change — is increasing the health risks for pregnant people globally. The report, by Climate Central, found that heat exposure has presented pregnancy risks like hypertension, gestational diabetes, maternal hospitalisation, and severe maternal morbidity. 

According to the report, climate change has resulted in increasing “pregnancy heat-risk” days. These are days with temperatures hotter than 95% of those typically experienced at a given location. 

Pregnancy heat-risk is associated with outcomes such as stillbirth and preterm birth. Even a single day of extreme heat exposure during pregnancy can increase the risk of complications, as cited in the report.

Increasing Temperature Posing Risk for Pregnancy

The study analysed daily temperatures during the past five years (2020 to 2024) in 247 countries, territories, and dependencies and 940 global cities. In nearly one-third of the countries and 18% of global cities, climate change has added at least one month’s worth of pregnancy heat-risk days on average each year. 

The study also found that the frequency of temperatures was  associated with increased risks of preterm birth, other adverse pregnancy complications and birth outcomes have been linked with these temperature percentiles.

The study showed that sensitivity to heat-related pregnancy risks varies based on socio-economic factors such as national wealth, healthcare access, and race.

Unequal Impact Across Regions

Climate change has at least doubled the number of heat-risk days across all continents, compared to a world without climate change. For countries like Palau, Micronesia, and Singapore, all or nearly all of the pregnancy risk days they experienced in the past five years were caused by climate change. 

The study showed that countries where climate change added more heat-risk days were situated in the Caribbean, Central America and South America, the Pacific Islands, and Sub-Saharan Africa. These countries experience at least one additional month’s worth of pregnancy heat-risk days. Asian countries have at least doubled the average annual number of pregnancy heat-risk days, according to the study.

The residents of these countries are among the most vulnerable to climate change despite contributing the least to greenhouse emissions, the report stated. These countries also have some of the largest populations lacking access to efficient cooling, which can mitigate health impacts from extreme heat. Most of these countries that are affected experience barriers to healthcare access and higher rates of maternal mortality, according to the report. 

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