Climate Change and Its Effects on Maternal Mental Health

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns primarily caused by human activities, which have facilitated more climate crises, such as floods, wildfires, hurricanes, etc. They tend to have the greatest effect on vulnerable populations, such as women and children. This study is aimed to view how climate change-related environmental stressors impact the mental health and well-being of mothers. A scoping literature review approach was used by analyzing scientific databases (i.e. APA-Psycinfo, Scopus, PRIMO) to find peer-reviewed papers that studied the effects of extreme weather events and climate change on maternal mental health. Results suggest that hurricanes, bushfires, and floods were the three main causes of poor maternal mental health. Two standout natural disasters that were most traumatic to the participants are Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, Louisiana and the Fort McMurray, Canada wildfire. Mothers who were evacuated from Fort McMurray had greater distress and more severe PTSD-like symptoms while Hurricane Katrina victims experienced a rise in food insecurity. The majority of these women were low-income minorities and over half reported an annual household income of <$15,000. A disproportionate number of these participants also experienced symptoms of depression, PTSD, and scored much higher on pregnancy-related anxiety/perceived stress surveys. Overall, there is little to no discussion of how the current climate crisis impacts maternal mental health. Eco- and climate anxiety are negatively affecting maternal mental health of women worldwide and more awareness must be brought to how it is an emerging threat to mothers as a whole.