Protecting pregnant women and babies from extreme temperatures
What interventions may help to reduce the impact of heat stress on pregnant women, women who have given birth and their newborn babies? The CHAMNHA project engaged in co-design workshops with stakeholders in Kenya and Burkina Faso to co-create locally appropriate and feasible interventions.
Participatory co-design workshops on heat interventions to protect pregnant women and babies from extreme temperatures in Kenya and Burkina Faso were held with local stakeholders between April and June 2021 (four workshops in Burkina Faso, one workshop in Kenya). The aim was to co-create locally appropriate and feasible interventions which may help to reduce the impact of heat stress on pregnant and postpartum women and their new-born babies, as well as select which interventions should be prioritized for testing in the CHAMNHA project.
Engaged with local stakeholders
The workshops were hosted by Aga Khan University in Kenya and IRSS (Institut de Recherche en Science de la Sante) in Burkina Faso. Just over 100 stakeholders across the two sites participated in these workshops, including: delegates from the Ministries of Health, Environment, Housing, Agriculture, Gender, and Water; District and Regional government officials; community and religious leaders; customary chiefs; midwives and nurses; medical officers; health facility managers; traditional birth attendants; representatives of local NGOs and community radio stations; a network of climate change journalists; community health workers; meteorologists; representatives of village development committees, local women’s groups and youth groups; pregnant and postpartum women, male spouses, and mothers-in-law from the study sites.
Raising awareness of dangers of heat is key
The workshops allowed participants to learn about the CHAMNHA project and acquire new knowledge about extreme heat and maternal and child health. Participants also discussed which interventions to reduce the impact of heat stress on pregnant and postpartum women and their newborns, for implementation in health care facilities and in communities, would be most feasible and likely to succeed. In small group discussions, interventions were ranked in order of priority using criteria such as cost-effectiveness, acceptability, and sustainability. Workshop participants also reviewed the challenges and opportunities for implementation as well as sustainability strategies.
Interventions considered the highest priority by workshop participants in the two country settings included: (1) sensitisation campaigns to raise community awareness of the dangers of heat and communicate advice about behaviours to reduce heat stress; (2) training of healthcare workers to integrate heat-health messaging into their practice; (3) tree-planting; (4) improved ventilation of health facilities and homes to create “cool spaces”; and (5) interventions to improve access to water at community level (Kenya only).
Read more about the CHAMNHA project.
Cover photo for this story: Researcher, Dr Adelaide Lusambili, with participants in a focus group discussion for mothers-in-law of pregnant and postpartum women, Kilifi County, Kenya. Photo credit: Peter Khaemba