Climate change could pose a big risk to Australians' reproductive health with a new, large-scale study revealing a possible link between extreme bioclimatic exposure during pregnancy and babies' birthweights for gestational age. Researchers examined more than 385,000 pregnancies in Western Australia between 2000 and 2015, from 12 weeks prior to conception until birth.
Climate change could pose a big risk to Australians' reproductive health with a new, large-scale Curtin University study revealing a possible link between extreme bioclimatic exposure during pregnancy and babies' birthweights for gestational age. Researchers from the Curtin School of Population Health examined more than 385,000 pregnancies in Western Australia between 2000 and 2015, from 12 weeks prior to conception until birth. These pregnancies included 9.8% and 9.9% of children born too small and large for gestational age, respectively. The team focused on the relationship between low and high birthweights for gestational age and a person's outdoor heat or cold (biothermal) stress exposures during pregnanc