A 22-year-old pregnant Anuja Mallewadi is forced to do physical work much beyond her present capacity due to her condition. However, her in-laws claim they did much more than her during their time.
ASHA worker educating a woman on health issues
“During pregnancy, many older women force the younger ones not to rest and share stories of how they had it much worse,” said community health care worker Shubhangi Kamble.
They fail to understand that times are changing. The climate is not the same, the air not the same, the ever-growing heat notwithstanding. August 2024 has been recorded the hottest in the last 175-year-period, with temperatures crossing 50 degrees.
Soaring temperatures across India are severely affecting the health of pregnant women. Mallewadi puked often, felt dizzy, and was dehydrated this summer. While Kamble worked on these health ailments, she knew the problem was linked to climate change.
Traditional beliefs, compounded by the denial of climate shifts, often compel women to work strenuously despite the risks. This could have severe consequences for India, a country with the highest number of pregnancies and an average of 23 million children born each year.
During pregnancy, physiological changes make it difficult for the body to regulate temperature, leading to increased maternal core body temperature and pulse. This can result in fetal distress. Moreover, high temperatures are associated with gestational hypertension, preterm birth, gestational diabetes, and placental abruptions.
“Many people don’t understand the effects of climate change,” Kamble said. For them, climate change is just events such as floods, which cause physical damage. And explaining to people isn’t an easy job either. Often, ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) are yelled at for this, but they try not to lose patience.
Small stories of people who face the adverse effects of climate change in their health get hidden under the growing pile of much bigger issues happening around the world. However, it is small stories such as this that show us exactly how climate change is affecting us in our daily lives.
Learn more about this story here:
https://www.devex.com/news/indian-community-health-care-workers-take-on-climate-and-health-education-108297
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6 w
Raising climate change awareness through such stories is very informative
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8 w
The climate crisis is and will affect us all, but it will mostly touch the most fragile, women, pregnant women are at the core of this crisis. We need to act!
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8 w
Dear Varsa Mahananda Your climate love has received over 50 agrees! We have reached out to National Health Mission by email and requested a response. I will keep you updated on any progress! To reach more people and increase the chance of a response, click the Share button above to share the review on your social accounts. For every new member that joins We Don't Have Time from your network, we will plant a tree and attribute it to you! /Adam, We Don't Have Time
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8 w
There's urgent need to address the effects of extreme heat on vulnerable populations