This blog is authored by the UNFPA Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, Pio Smith, and was originally published on AVPN.
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Mothers and newborns are facing rising risks as the climate crisis worsens. Extreme heat, violent storms and rising sea levels hit women and girls hardest. For those who carry and care for new life, the risks are profound – and for Asia and the Pacific, home to nearly 60% of the world’s population, the stakes are high.
Pregnancy makes women especially vulnerable to heat stress, while disasters disrupt access to safe deliveries and fuel gender-based violence. Without urgent action, decades of progress could be rolled back. Yet solutions exist, and with the right investment, they can be scaled to build resilience across the region.
Here are five ways stronger maternal health systems can help countries adapt to climate change.
1. Protecting women and newborns from heat
Pregnancy changes the body in ways that make women less able to cope with extreme heat. Even a 1°C rise in temperature increases the odds of preterm birth by up to 16%. Heat exposure has also been linked to stillbirths, low birth weight, gestational diabetes, and hypertension. For babies exposed in utero, the risks can last a lifetime, including higher mortality, stunting, and respiratory disease.
These are not abstract risks. In South Asia, millions of women continue farming or performing heavy labour through late pregnancy in soaring heat, often without safe water or rest. What may feel like “just another hot day” can be life or death for a pregnant woman.
Investing in climate-resilient health services, such as cooling systems in clinics and training for healthcare providers, protects mothers and reduces long-term burdens on health systems.
2. Supporting those most at risk of climate impacts
The Asia-Pacific region is highly vulnerable, with over 4.6 billion people at risk from rising seas and extreme weather. Climate pressures fall hardest on those with the fewest resources. Women in rural and low-income communities often face the triple burden of outdoor labour, caregiving, and poor access to healthcare. For Indigenous women, refugees, and women with disabilities, risks multiply as poverty, displacement, and lack of infrastructure limit access to care and protection.
In the Pacific, the injustice is stark. Small Island Developing States contribute little to global emissions but face rising seas and stronger cyclones. When disasters strike, women and children are 14 times more likely to die than men. The sub-region also has some of the world’s highest rates of gender-based violence, with more than half of women experiencing it in their lifetime, a crisis worsened by displacement, stress, and weakened services.
As climate change makes resources scarcer, women and girls, who are often responsible for collecting water and firewood, must travel further, including in displacement settings, which heightens their risk of gender-based violence.
UNFPA research shows spikes in sex trafficking after cyclones and increases in intimate partner violence during droughts. Protecting women and girls requires investment in safer infrastructure, early-warning systems, and community-led protection, as well as private sector support to design and finance solutions.
In Bangladesh, UNFPA is researching how extreme heat, sea-level rise, and water salinity affect maternal care for displaced women. Every dollar targeted to maternal health in vulnerable groups multiplies resilience where it is needed most.
3. Scaling up life-saving solutions
Solutions are emerging across the region. Clinics are piloting cooling systems and heat-resilient infrastructure. Governments are embedding sexual and reproductive health into climate adaptation plans. Many national climate plans now include health surveillance, such as early warning systems, that alert pregnant women and healthcare workers during extreme weather events.
In Thailand, UNFPA is collaborating with civil society and academic partners on climate-vulnerability assessments in health facilities that provide maternal, sexual, and reproductive health, and gender-based violence services. These interventions work, but they are far from universal. Catalytic investment is needed to scale them. Proven pilots can become nationwide programmes, equipping health systems with resilient infrastructure, expanding early-warning systems, and bringing affordable innovations to market.
4. Building economic resilience
Strong maternal health systems enable countries to better withstand and recover from climate shocks. When a mother survives and thrives, her children are healthier, better educated, and more productive, creating families and communities that are more resilient in times of crisis. By contrast, maternal death or disability carries huge social and economic costs that weaken societies’ ability to adapt to climate change.
UNFPA helps de-risk investments in climate-resilient sexual and reproductive health services, creating opportunities for blended finance and philanthropic capital to scale innovations that save lives while strengthening economies.
5. Driving investment where it matters most
At the upcoming AVPN Global Conference 2025, I urge investors, philanthropies, and policymakers to put women and girls at the heart of climate resilience. Climate justice demands investment in women’s health, particularly in the most vulnerable contexts. Protecting maternal health is about more than survival. It ensures women and girls can thrive, lead, and drive sustainable development.
When we safeguard the health of mothers and the futures of girls, we safeguard the foundation of families, communities and economies across Asia and the Pacific.
