Extreme Heat Puts Pregnant Women, Newborns at Risk, Warns UN Climate Chief

Extreme heat is emerging as a growing threat to pregnant women and newborns.

With rising temperatures increasingly linked to serious complications during pregnancy and childbirth, UN climate chief Simon Stiell is expected to warn.

Speaking at the pre-COP summit in Fiji on Monday, Stiell will highlight findings from a survey of healthcare professionals across five continents, which found that more than two-thirds had witnessed complications they attributed to extreme heat over the past five years.

“Rising temperatures mean rising danger in pregnancy,” Stiell is expected to tell delegates.

He will point to growing evidence connecting climate-driven heat exposure during pregnancy with premature births, stillbirths, low birth weight and complications affecting mothers.

Healthcare Workers Report Growing Impact

The survey, commissioned by the Wellcome charitable foundation, covered around 1,000 midwives and doctors in the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Brazil and Zimbabwe.

Nearly all respondents said they had treated mothers or newborns affected by extreme heat.

Around one-third reported seeing cases involving low birth weight or restricted growth, feeding problems, dehydration and other heat-related illnesses that they believed were linked to intense heat.

Stiell is expected to describe the trend as a new and potentially dangerous dimension of the global climate crisis, warning that worsening heat could deepen existing inequalities in maternal and newborn health.

‘Extreme Heat Is an Invisible Killer’

Former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, who chairs the Wellcome foundation, said climate change was exposing mothers and babies to increasing risks.

“Extreme heat is an invisible killer, but pregnant women must not be invisible,” Gillard said, urging governments to act on the evidence already available.

Her comments come as scientists continue to warn that human-driven climate change is increasing the intensity of extreme weather and contributing to more frequent temperature records.

Heat Records Continue to Fall

An analysis of data from the European Union’s Copernicus climate observatory found that about 33 countries stretching from western Europe to the Sahel and Central America experienced their hottest July on record this year.

The growing frequency of extreme heat has raised concerns about its impact on vulnerable populations, including pregnant women, infants and people living in regions with limited access to healthcare and cooling facilities.

Pacific Nations Push Climate Concerns

The pre-COP31 meetings in Fiji and Tuvalu are particularly significant for Pacific island nations, which are among the regions most exposed to the effects of climate change.

The gatherings are intended to build momentum ahead of COP31, the UN-backed global climate conference scheduled to take place in Türkiye next month.

Stiell is expected to tell delegates that pregnancy should remain a period of hope rather than anxiety, warning that climate change is increasingly turning everyday conditions into health risks for millions of women and children.