What is it about?
This study asks a simple but important question: what research should be prioritised to protect the nutrition and health of mothers and babies as Pakistan’s climate changes? Rather than relying only on researchers to decide, the study involved 127 people in Sindh, including community members, healthcare workers, nutritionists, researchers and climate experts. The findings show widespread concern. Almost nine in ten survey participants were very or extremely concerned about climate change and maternal and infant nutrition. Poor understanding of adequate nutrition was identified as an important issue, while dehydration, weakness and exhaustion were major concerns for pregnant women. For babies, participants highlighted heat exposure, low birth weight and increased hospital admissions during heatwaves. However, the study shows that these problems are not simply caused by hot weather. Floods, unpredictable rainfall, and changing seasons damage crops, reduce household income, increase food prices, and make healthcare harder to access. Poverty can therefore make the effects of climate change considerably worse. Women face additional pressures. Many combine agricultural work with cooking, childcare and caring for other family members, including during pregnancy. Limited financial support can mean that women continue physically demanding work and sometimes miss health appointments because their families depend on their labour. The central message is that protecting mothers and babies requires more than telling people about nutrition. Climate change interacts with poverty, gender inequality, food insecurity, healthcare access and limited social protection. Research and policy therefore need to be developed with affected communities, taking their everyday realities and knowledge seriously.
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Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Our findings show that climate change does not affect mothers and babies through heat and floods alone. Its effects are shaped by poverty, food insecurity, women’s heavy workloads, limited healthcare and inadequate social support. Thus, protecting maternal and infant health requires addressing these wider inequalities alongside the direct effects of climate change.
Perspectives
My perspective is that climate change research must begin with the voices of those experiencing its effects in their everyday lives. Women, their families and communities are not simply people affected by climate change; they hold important knowledge about how changing weather interacts with livelihoods, food, health, care and existing inequalities. Centring these voices can help ensure that research priorities and responses reflect what communities themselves consider important, rather than what researchers or funders assume their priorities should be.
Dr Sadiq Bhanbhro
Sheffield Hallam University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Mapping research priorities related to maternal and infant nutritional health in the context of climate change in Pakistan: a mixed-methods study, BMJ Global Health, August 2026, BMJ,
DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2026-023722.
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