The UK government has received criticism from researchers for not including pregnant women in their agenda to protect them from the heatwave. The BMJ released research titled: Associations between high temperatures in pregnancy and risk of preterm birth, low birth weight, and stillbirths: systematic review and meta-analysis.
“Pregnant women have only recently been included among the groups most vulnerable to heat stress, and it will take time for that recognition to translate into action. Studies in 2011 and 2015, for example, showed that the large majority of heatwave response plans in European Union countries had not identified pregnant women as a high-risk group. The public also appears largely unaware of the risks of heat exposure during pregnancy,” said a statement from the journal.
Expressing concern about marginalised women, the Human Rights Watch reported, “Ensuring heat-related protections for pregnant people is an issue of women’s rights as well as racial and economic inequality. In the UK, stillbirths and preterm births are already more likely among Black and Asian babies. Black women are four times more likely and Asian women twice as likely to die during pregnancy and childbirth than white women, and those living in the most deprived areas are nearly three times more likely to die than those in more economically advantaged areas.”
