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Doctors have long known that heat puts a strain on the heart, kidneys and other organs. These risks are even greater for pregnant people because the body’s cooling mechanisms change.
It’s a problem that climate change caused by the burning of fuels like gasoline and coal is worsening. An increase in extreme heat events, high temperatures at night and breaking weather records means greater risks for pregnant people, especially in developing countries.
Here’s what you need to know about the science of pregnancy and extreme heat:
Pregnancy makes it harder to handle the heat
Pregnancy changes the body in a myriad of ways, which can make it more difficult and uncomfortable to shed heat.
“One obvious thing is that, pregnant people’s bellies bulge, depending on how far along they are, and that’s a change in their surface to volume ratio,” said Anna Burshtein, an associate professor. New York University‘S Grossman School of Medicine and director of Project Heatwave, an initiative aimed at improving research on preventing deaths caused by extreme heat. Heat Heat leaves your body through your skin, so when the belly gets bigger, heat has to travel farther to escape.
As pregnancy progresses, the body burns more calories, creating internal heat. The heart has to work harder, which can already be stressed by extreme heat. And people who are pregnant also need more fluids to stay hydrated, so they may become dehydrated more easily, according to Environmental Protection Agency,
One way to cool the body is to send blood toward the skin and away from the central organs, which is why a person’s skin can flush and turn red when it gets hot. Emerging research indicates that reduced blood flow to the placenta may affect fetal development.
Dr. Chris Holstege, head of the department of medical toxicology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, said that for pregnant women using potent substances such as pesticides, increased blood flow may also increase chemical absorption.
Risks before, during, and after pregnancy
Research Cara Schulte, a researcher at the University of California Berkeley and the nonprofit Climate Rights International, who studies maternal health and heat, said exposure to extreme heat even in the months before getting pregnant can affect future pregnancies.
According to the EPA, during pregnancy, even short-term exposure to heat can increase the risk of serious maternal health complications, such as high blood pressure disorders during pregnancy. This also includes preeclampsia, a condition that can be fatal for both mother and baby.
The heat can also increase feelings of anxiety, depression and isolation, Schulte said, and once the baby is born, “all of these things are compounded by the difficulty that postpartum women have in caring for their babies in the heat.”
As they grow up, babies who are exposed to extreme heat in utero may be at increased risk of experiencing developmental challenges throughout their lives, which could potentially be related to adverse outcomes such as premature birth or low birth weight, Schulte said.
“It’s very understandable,” Burstein said. Much of what we know comes from studies of athletes, soldiers or recruited fit youth, he said. “The level of commitment to women’s health research has not been the same.”
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Associated Press reporter Dorani Pineda contributed to this report.
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