Children’s Vulnerability to Environmental Exposures: Pregnancy

Oct 14m 2010

Source: NIH

National Library of Medicine

National Center for Biotechnology Information

Photo Source: Unsplash

Pregnancy and prenatal complications

Study of the potential influences on pregnancy and prenatal complications of direct temperature effects related to climate change is an area of emerging research (Confalonieri et al. 2007). There is some evidence that exposure to extreme heat during pregnancy is related to lower birth weight, and this effect appears to be most important when exposure occurs in the second and third trimesters on U.S. births (Deschênes et al. 2009). The clinical significance of the decrease in birth weight observed in these studies is not clear. Ambient temperature during gestation has also been observed to affect sex ratio at birth and longevity of males in a Northern European population (Catalano et al. 2008), with mechanisms that are not clear. Also, there is some evidence of associations between climatic variables, such as increased humidity, and preeclampsia and eclampsia (prenatal complications), which present health risks not only for the unborn child but also for the mother (Subramaniam 2007). Finally, particulate air pollution is associated with preterm births, low birth weight, and infant mortality (Kim et al. 2004). As noted above, climate change could alter concentrations of particulate matter as a result of increased wildfires or changes in pollutant transport mechanisms and thus influence pregnancy outcomes.

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