We invite you to attend the upcoming webinar “Maternal Health, Climate Change, and Birth Outcomes: Environmental and Reproductive Justice Intersections" to be held on Friday, June 19 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm EST.
Opening Remarks
Linda Goler Blount, MPH, President and CEO of Black Women’s Health Imperative, will discuss how the climate impacts maternal health through a reproductive justice framework.
Panelists
Dr. Rupa Basu, Chief of Air and Climate Epidemiology Section at Cal EPA/OEHHA, will provide information about the current status of epidemiology on this issue, with a focus on research in the US, including insights on what available studies say about race, socioeconomic status, and heat.
Dr. Ana Bonell, Medical Doctor and Researcher, will provide insights from her field research with pregnant farmworkers in Gambia as to what the impact of heat might be on pregnant people.
Dr. Adelle Monteblanco, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Middle Tennessee State University, will talk about her project to address heat and maternal health in El Paso, Texas.
Charo Valero, Florida State Policy Director of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, will talk about how heat and pregnancy health is a growing area of concern for her organization.
Lexi White, MPP, Senior Policy Manager at In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, will discuss federal policy interventions as well as critical environmental and reproductive justice intersections with an emphasis on Black women and clean water.
Speakers will raise the profile of the intersections between maternal health, climate change, and birth outcomes. This webinar seeks to share key findings, ideas, and opportunities to take action. Our hope is that attendees will gain an understanding of available epidemiology, reproductive justice implications, and policy and community interventions. Pregnant people are more susceptible to heat stress than non-pregnant people but are often missed in public health narratives and outreach.
To receive the webinar link, please RSVP and register at the link below:
Background
Pregnant people are more susceptible to heat stress than non-pregnant people but are often missed in public health narratives and outreach.
A growing body of epidemiology shows a link between exposure to high temperatures during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes such as preterm birth, low birth weight and even stillbirth; the harm of this exposure impacts Black women, women of color, and communities impacted by environmental racism, most.
Reproductive justice affirms our human right to have children, to not have children, and to birth and raise children in healthy, safe, and sustainable communities.
In the US, racism and socioeconomic injustices have contributed to the industrialized world’s highest rates of preterm birth—rates that are growing. In the US, Black women are 49 percent more likely to have a preterm birth than all other women, for example. Furthermore, because of longstanding environmental racism, including redlining, in many cities, Black neighborhoods are significantly hotter than their white counterparts. Similarly, in a heating world, pregnant farmworkers and other outdoor workers remain disparately at risk.
Action on heat and climate must be rooted in human rights and address longstanding reproductive oppression and environmental racism.