Assessing the Effect of Environmental Heat Stress on Maternal Physiology and Fetal Blood Flow in Pregnant Subsistence Farmers in West Africa

A feasibility study of the use of UmbiFlow™ to assess the impact of heat stress on fetoplacental blood flow in field studies

“…Briefly, pregnant women living in West Kiang, The Gambia, participated in an observational cohort study of maternal heat strain and the assessment of the dynamic changes in maternal and fetoplacental blood flow during a day of field work from August 2019 to March 2020, with follow up until December 2020. 19 Participants were identified through the antenatal clinic or the health and demographic surveillance system in place in West Kiang and were eligible if they were pregnant with a singleton fetus, undertook farming or manual tasks during pregnancy, and did not have pre‐eclampsia or eclampsia at the time of recruitment. Gestational age was determined using last known menstrual period when known, or if unknown, by biparietal diameter on ultrasound scan before 28 weeks of gestation.…”

Exploring the use of UmbiFlow™ to assess the impact of heat stress on fetoplacental blood flow in field studies

“…Briefly, pregnant women living in West Kiang, The Gambia, participated in an observational cohort study of maternal heat strain and the assessment of the dynamic changes in maternal and fetoplacental blood flow during a day of field work. (17) Participants were eligible if they were singleton pregnancies, undertook farming tasks during pregnancy and did not suffer with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia at the time of recruitment. Gestational age was determined by last known menstrual period when known, or biparietal diameter on ultrasound scan before 28 weeks’ gestation by a trained sonographer when unknown.…”

“…ethics committee and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Ethics Advisory Board (ref: 16405) in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (2013).Briefly, pregnant women living in West Kiang, The Gambia, participated in an observational cohort study of maternal heat strain and the assessment of the dynamic changes in maternal and fetoplacental blood flow during a day of field work (17). Participants were eligible if they were singleton pregnancies, undertook farming tasks during pregnancy and did not suffer with pre-eclampsia or eclampsia at the time of recruitment.…”

Understanding systemic cooling poverty

“…Exposure to adequate temperatures throughout the gestational period is also fundamental among pregnant women and unborn babies. Bonell et al 77 in Sub-Saharan Africa, show important changes in foetal heart rates among working mothers. Stillbirths and preterm births were linked with higher temperatures during summers in Quebec 78 Australia 79 and US 80 , while foetal growth and birth size were found to be irregular among pregnant women in Bangladesh 81 .…”