Global warming and reproductive health.
International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, 08/17/2012
Clinical Article
Potts M and Henderson C.E.– This paper dicusses the effects of global warming and rapid populaiton explosion on reproductive health of women in Sahel and parts of Middle East.
- The largest absolute numbers of maternal deaths occur among the 40–50 million women who deliver annually without a skilled birth attendant.
- Most of these deaths occur in countries with a total fertility rate of greater than 4.
- Poverty, lack of resources, and rapid population growth make it unlikely that most women in these countries will have access to skilled birth attendants or emergency obstetric care in the foreseeable future.
- Three strategies can be implemented to improve women's health and reproductive rights in high–fertility, low–resource settings: (1) make family planning accessible and remove non–evidenced–based barriers to contraception; (2) scale up community distribution of misoprostol for prevention of postpartum hemorrhage and, where it is legal, for medical abortion; and (3) eliminate child marriage and invest in girls and young women, thereby reducing early childbearing.
