How to Reduce the Vulnerability of Pregnant Women in Disasters? Components and criteria for improving the resilience of pregnant women in disasters; a systematic review

Abstract

Background and purpose: Climate changes, the emergence of epidemics, and the increase in the number of disasters, disaster management systems, such as health management, have faced many challenges especially for pregnant women. The studies carried out regarding the impact of disasters on pregnant women mostly focus on the vulnerability aspects of this group in disasters, and there is no comprehensive study of the criteria of preparation, resilience and empowerment of pregnant women to deal with disasters. The present study, using a systematic review method, seeks to find effective components and criteria for improving the resilience of pregnant women against disasters. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in Scopus, Cochran Library, PubMed, Web of Science, ProQuest and Science Direct databases to identify relevant literature. The search keywords of the articles included "pregnant women", "disasters" and "resilience". By screening the articles based on the PRISMA flowchart and the STROBE checklist to evaluate the final selected articles, the effective components and criteria in improving the resilience of pregnant women against disasters were extracted Results: In the systematic search of articles, 3939 articles were obtained, after removing duplicates and screening the title/abstract, after reviewing full content of articles, finally 7 articles were selected for final evaluation. The results obtained, in the form of 5 themes; Preparedness, social support, provision of vital needs, mental health and awareness and information providing were categorized. Conclusion: The results of this study provide a perspective of the challenges and influential components in improving the resilience of pregnant women in disasters. This information can be use as recommendation and the basis for managers' planning and policymakers of disaster management in preparing for future disasters especially disasters related to climate change in the field of health, treatment, support, and care of pregnant women in disasters.