The Impact of Climate Change on Maternal and Newborn Health Outcomes

Climate change directly and indirectly affects maternal and newborn health outcomes globally. Exposure to climate-related stressors can lead to adverse health outcomes, including miscarriage, low birth weight, malnutrition, and respiratory disease. Additionally, increases in infectious disease and food insecurity driven in part by climate change can have long-term effects, including increased rates of child marriage. Climate-related crises can also lead to diminished access to necessary sexual and reproductive health services. For example, individuals forcibly displaced as a result of extreme weather events face enormous barriers to access necessary health care.

The Wilson Center’s Maternal Health Initiative, in collaboration with UNFPA, hosted a panel discussion addressing the lasting effects of climate change on maternal and newborn health outcomes and the importance of addressing this often overlooked intersection of issues in global climate discussions. Panelists shared lived experience, evidence-based research, and innovations and policies from regions most directly impacted by climate change.

Introduction

Sarah B. Barnes

Director, Maternal Health Initiative

Schedule interview

Moderator

Paulina Ospina

Associate Director, Maternal Child Health Program, Direct Relief

Panelists

Sari Kovats

Associate Professor, Department of Public Health, Environments and Society in the Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Talib Lashari

Technical Advisor, Population Welfare Department, Government of Sindh, Pakistan; Consultant, Department of Health, Government of Sindh

Jorge Matine

Director, IPAS Mozambique

Nila Wardani

Coordinator, Research Division, White Ribbon Alliance Indonesia

Skye Wheeler

Senior Researcher, Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch

Hosted By

Maternal Health Initiative

Despite global attention and calls to action, women continue to die while giving birth. The Maternal Health Initiative (MHI) leads the Wilson Center’s work on maternal health, global health equity, and gender equality. MHI works to connect issues critical to global health and women’s empowerment to foreign policy and US leadership, with a focus on improving the lives of women, adolescents, and children around the world. Through collaborations with policymakers, academia, donors, and practitioners, MHI produces cutting-edge research, fosters cross-sectoral engagement, increases awareness of key issues, and informs US leadership on solutions for ending maternal and newborn deaths and addressing gender-based global health issues.  Read more

Environmental Change and Security Program

The Environmental Change and Security Program (ECSP) explores the connections between environmental change, health, and population dynamics and their links to conflict, human insecurity, and foreign policy. Read more

Indo-Pacific Program

The Indo-Pacific Program promotes policy debate and intellectual discussions on US interests in the Asia-Pacific as well as political, economic, security, and social issues relating to the world’s most populous and economically dynamic region.  Read more

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