Photo: Dr. Jennifer Barkin with her children.
May was Mental Health Awareness Month and also the month that houses Mother’s Day. What do mothers and climate change have to do with each other? Well, as it turns out, a lot. Mothers are primarily what I like to refer to as the “CEOs of Family Health.” They are the ones making sure the kids get their yearly flu shots and the peddlers of sunscreen and more veggies on the dinner plate. They play a critical role in ensuring that inhalers are packed in respective bookbags.
Speaking of family health, climate change impacts all aspects and all organ systems – therefore, the consequences of its growing impact on human health also falls on Mom’s overflowing plate. According to a recent Gallup poll, nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults are concerned about global warming or climate change, with 61% worrying about it either “a great deal” (40%) or “a fair amount” (21%). It is real, it is here, and it is impacting our physical and mental health every day of our lives.
Extreme weather has the potential to impose outsized trauma on pregnant and postpartum women and their families. Consider the story of Jelessica Monard, who was living in rural southeast Georgia when Hurricane Helene swept through the region, wreaking havoc on citizens. Jelessica was 5 months pregnant at the time, and with a high-risk pregnancy. High-risk pregnancies require greater levels of medical care and surveillance of both the mother and fetus. Things became problematic for Jelessica when Helene hit, causing medical clinics, grocery stores, and gas stations to close. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to get medical care or fresh groceries, and a slim chance of filling up your gas tank to flee. It makes me feel stressed just thinking about it – I can’t imagine how Jelessica felt.
As climate change progresses, experiences like Jelessica’s will become more commonplace. This level of stress/trauma exposure during pregnancy is problematic at a minimum – and has the potential to be downright dangerous.
Connections between perinatal mental health and climate change are cited in a recent article authored by myself and perinatal psychiatrist colleague, Dr. Sanne van Rhijn. Dr. van Rhijn describes a patient who had recently given birth presenting with suicidal ideation and thoughts of infanticide during a heatwave. Of great importance – this patient’s home was not air conditioned.
Exposure to extreme weather can be traumatic. Trauma is a risk factor for the development (or worsening) of an array of negative mental health symptoms, in all populations including pregnant and postpartum women.
Reproductive healthcare providers and new mothers are going to have to be vigilant as more areas of the world are impacted by climate change. The good news is that many, but not all, providers already screen for depression in new moms. This means that some infrastructure is already in place (and therefore can be leveraged and built upon) to monitor the mental health of new moms.
Author
Dr. Jennifer Barkin, M.S., PhD is an expert in perinatal mental health and a professor at Mercer University School of Medicine. She serves on the steering committee for Georgia Clinicians for Climate Action.
