Climate change is a major stressor causing poor pregnancy outcomes and child development

Abstract

The climate crisis is the existential threat of our times and for generations to come. This is no longer a threat but a reality affecting us, our children, and the generations that follow. Pregnant mothers, their fetuses, and their children are among those at greatest risk in every population and every jurisdiction. A timely consideration is the health of racialized groups who are particularly vulnerable owing to the confluence of several risk factors that are compounded by climate change. Included among these are Indigenous communities that are the most directly threatened by climate change. This review discusses the main health challenges faced by mothers, fathers, and their children during the climate crisis, focusing on mental health as a causal factor. Exploration of this topic includes the role of prenatal maternal and paternal stresses, allostatic load, and the effect of degradation of the environment and ecosystems on individuals. These will be examined in relation to adverse pregnancy outcomes and altered developmental trajectories of children. The climate crisis is a health threat multiplier that amplifies the health inequities of the most at-risk populations and individuals. It accelerates the increase in allostatic load of those at risk. The path of tragedy begins with an accumulating allostatic load that overwhelms both individual and socio-ecological resilience. This can lead to worse mental health including depression and anxiety and, in the case of pregnant women and their children, more adverse pregnancy outcomes and impaired developmental trajectories for their newborn children. We argue that there is an urgent need to develop new (or re-discover or re-purpose existing) tools that will predict communities and individuals who are experiencing the highest levels of climate-related hazards and intervene to reduce stress and increase resilience in pre-conceptual women and men, pregnant and post-partum women, and their young children.

Climate Change and Children’s Mental Health: A Developmental Perspective

“…Even if exposure to environmental stressors does not result in the onset of a psychiatric disorder, it can lead to delays in attainment of cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional milestones, which are known to covary with mental-health risk (Evans, 2019;Laplante et al, 2004). More broadly, slow-moving psychosocial stressors driven by climate change, such as economic downturns, reduced agricultural yields, forced migration, and civil conflict, can have direct effects on maternal stress and, thus, pregnancy outcomes (Olson & Metz, 2020). If persistent, these stressors will continue to undermine the child's healthy development after the birth, initially mediated by parents' resources and the quality of parenting they can deliver (Xerxa et al, 2021) and, later, directly through psychosocial stressors within the family (microsystem), educational (mesosystem), and societal (exosystems and macrosystems) environments that the child occupies (R. Williams et al, 2021).…”

Climate Change and Child Health Inequality: A Review of Reviews

“…Of the included reviews, four were systematic reviews (Table 2) [21][22][23][24], three were technical and commissioned reports (Table 3) [13,25,26] and 16 were narrative reviews, or opinion pieces with substantive literature reviews (Table 4) [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42] All reviews and reports were published in international peer-reviewed journals with the exception of the Assembly of First Nations Report which was included as the challenges faced by indigenous children and their families are under-represented in the literature. Sixteen reviews The primary theme of interest in the scoping review was the association of climate change and child health inequalities reported in three specific dimensions; within country differences by social groups, between country differences (LMICs vs. HICs), and living in specific geographical locations.…”

“…Of the included reviews, four were systematic reviews (Table 2) [21][22][23][24], three were technical and commissioned reports (Table 3) [13,25,26] and 16 were narrative reviews, or opinion pieces with substantive literature reviews (Table 4) [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]. All reviews and reports were published in international peer-reviewed journals with the exception of the Assembly of First Nations Report which was included as the challenges faced by indigenous children and their families are under-represented in the literature.…”

“…All reviews and reports were published in international peer-reviewed journals with the exception of the Assembly of First Nations Report which was included as the challenges faced by indigenous children and their families are under-represented in the literature. Sixteen reviews had a global focus incorporating LMICs and HICs [13,[23][24][25][27][28][29][30][31][32]34,35,37,39,40,42], four reviews had a specific country focus (US [21], Canada [26,33], Cambodia [41]) and three reviews focused on grouped nations of a specific world region (LMICs [22,24], Sub-Saharan Africa, North America). Reviews were published from 2007 to 2020 and all were published in English.…”

“…Within country inequalities in child health related to climate change were reported in 16 reviews [13,[21][22][23][24][26][27][28][29]31,33,35,37,[40][41][42]. All reviews included descriptive evidence and five included quantitative evidence [13,[23][24][25]41].…”