As wildfire seasons lengthen and heat waves deepen, a quiet but consequential question has emerged at the intersection of climate and human beginnings: what happens to a pregnancy caught between smoke and heat at once? Researchers at the University of Maryland, backed by $2.5 million from the National Institutes of Health, are now pursuing that answer across two decades and 6.5 million births — seeking to understand how overlapping environmental hazards shape the earliest moments of life, and whose lives bear the heaviest burden.
NIH-funded study examines combined pregnancy risks from heat and wildfire smoke
Pregnant people and babies face increased risks of preterm birth, low birthweight, hypertensive disorders, and gestational diabetes from combined heat and wildfire smoke exposure.