According to recent Indian study, working in intense heat can increase a pregnant woman chance of miscarriage and stillbirth by double. According to the study, expecting mothers are much more in danger than previously believed. Women can impacted by hotter summers not only in tropical regions but even in nations like the UK.
They seek specialized health recommendations for expectant mothers who work worldwide.
The study, which initiated in 2017 by the Faculty of Public Health at the Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research (SRIHER) in Chennai, involved eight hundred pregnant women in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Approximately 50% of the participants employed in jobs involving high temperatures, such farming, brick kilns, and salt flats. While some of the others worked in colder settings like hospitals and schools.
What temperature deemed too hot for the human body varies depending on the situation.
One of the scientists who collaborated to the study, Prof. Jane Hirst, states that “[The impact of heat] is relative to what you’re used to and what your body’s used to.”
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The pregnant women in the study in India really are “at the forefront of experiencing climate change,” says Prof Hirst, who is a UK-based consultant obstetrician, and Professor of Global Women’s Health at medical research organisation The George Institute.
Earth’s average temperature is projected to rise by nearly three degrees by the end of the century, compared with pre-industrial times, and the World Health Organization (WHO) is warning of “an existential threat to all of us” with pregnant women facing “some of the gravest consequences”.
Prior research, primarily from high-income nations like the US and Australia, has indicated a roughly 15% increase in the chance of stillbirth and premature birth during heatwaves.
According to Prof. Hirst, the most recent findings from India are especially alarming and clear, and they have broader ramifications.
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“The UK is getting hotter summers, and while it’s not as hot as India, these adverse effects [on pregnancies] can seen at much lower temperatures in more temperate climates, such as the UK.”
She does add, though, that they must “kept in perspective”. Losing a baby will still a “rare event for most women” despite the risk doubled.
As of the now, pregnant women who work in the heat not officially advised anywhere in the world.
The majority of the existing advice for working in hot weather is based on research done on a guy who weighed 70–75 kg and had 20% body fat during the US military in the 1960s and 1970s.
Professor Hirst is hopeful that this study and others will alter that. Pregnant women who work in the heat can protect themselves, according to Prof. Vidhya Venugopal of the Faculty of Public Health at SRIHER, who oversaw the research on India:
Steer clear of lengthy exposure to the heat
if working outside on hot days, taking frequent rests in the shade
avoiding strenuous exercise or prolonged sun exposure during the warmest time of the day
Drinking water to stay hydrated
