Mental health and climate change: The critical window of pregnancy

Abstract

G y n e c o l o g y Mental health and climate change: The critical window of pregnancyThe field of climate and health research began with counting bodies, not unlike many other emerging fields of health research. Death is a clear end point to capture and an important health outcome.However, as a research field matures, often the research spotlight moves to different outcomes; first, to end points like heart attacks or congenital malformations and then to more insidious or subclinical outcomes like cognitive impairment, hormonal signaling, and shifts in mental well-being. The result of this research arc often reveals that the bulk of the health burden of environmental exposures lies in these more common, more insidious, sometimes life-course altering, non-fatal impacts-the proverbial hidden base of the iceberg.Environmental health researchers are also beginning to look not just myopically at single exposures but at mixtures and interactionsthe entire exposome. 1,2 Our understanding of the temporal aspects

Code OB: We need urgent action on climate change and toxic chemicals

“…Climate‐related exposures can also increase risks of cancer 8 . Additionally, climate change‐induced ecological events, including drought and floods, will lead to greater displacement and violence, disproportionately affecting women's mental health, physical safety, and overall well‐being 9–11 . This also includes an increase in armed conflict over scarcer resources and displacement that will unequally burden women 12 …”