Summary of the research

Summary of the research project

Background:

Climate change is our biggest global health challenge of the 21st century. We are seeing steady increases in global average temperatures with increasingly intense and frequent episodes of extreme heat. Extreme heat refers to summertime weather which is hotter and/or more humid than usual, including heatwaves. In the UK, the hottest 10 years on record have been since 2003. In 2022, we had our first national emergency for a heatwave that had the potential to overload health and social care.

Some groups are at higher risk of heat-related impacts. There is increasing evidence that pregnant women are one of these groups. Analysis of the existing knowledge has found a relationship (association) between experiencing high temperatures and an increase in certain pregnancy-related health problems. However, very little is known about how high outdoor temperatures affect pregnancies in England. People adapt to their local climate and health services differ between countries. It is difficult to take findings, particularly the point at which temperatures increase risks to health, from one country and apply them to another. The hot weather (including heatwave) plans for England have included pregnant women as a vulnerable group in their guidance since 2024. However the guidance itself is not specific to pregnant women.


Research aim

This research aims to improve the understanding of the impact of high outdoor temperatures on pregnant mothers', unborn babies' and newborns' health in England. It will develop an approach to reduce the health impacts by providing guidance and recommendations.


Design and methods

The research has three phases:

Phase 1: We will use large comprehensive national datasets to measure the impact of high outdoor temperatures on pregnancy and newborn health for England. The health problems that we will look at are babies being born early, stillbirth, and diabetes in pregnancy. These priorities were chosen with input from a wide range of professionals and members of the public. This study will be the first to measure these problems nationally in recent years. This phase will identify levels of outdoor temperatures that have the highest impact on these health issues. If you would like to know more about this phase and the data that will be used, click here.

Phase 2: has two parts:

a. We will undertake a nationwide survey in England to find out how pregnant, or recently pregnant, women and their partners, think about high outdoor temperatures. The focus will be during pregnancy and the newborn period. This will include asking what actions people currently take when the outdoor temperature is high.

b. We will speak with pregnant women, health professionals as well as public health and healthcare decision makers. We will explore their views on the impact of high outdoor temperatures in more depth and discuss how to best communicate the impacts and possible actions to reduce them.

Phase 3: We will bring pregnant women, parents and professionals together. We will review the learning from Phases 1 and 2. We will decide together what can be done to reduce these impacts by producing guidance and recommendations.

 

Involving members of the public in the research design

Members of the public were involved from the start of this research and have confirmed the work's value. They informed the project in several ways including recruitment strategies and how to reduce barriers to enable diverse involvement. Members of the public will continue to help develop the approach. They will also help develop the guidance and identify the best ways to communicate and share the findings (e.g., co-designing an animation).

 

Sharing the findings

We’ll share the research findings widely, including producing a plain English summary for the findings of each phase (co-developed with members of the public), blogs, animation(s) and journal articles. These will be shared with the public, the NHS, the team who develop the heatwave plans for England who are collaborators on this project, and other organisations.