“I feel very weak” and “comes to suffocate,” says the young woman of 28 answhen she evokes heat puffs linked to her seven -month pregnancy, accumulated at 32°It felt in his apartment without air conditioning. Already a mother of two children, she is pregnant for the first time in summer and “it’s tough” she describes, while Toulouse Mercury exceeded 40 ° C.
Fainting sensations
Without sufficient financial means for offer yourself a Air conditioning, this night bookstore is one of the pregnant women who “have lived much worse this intense heat wave” due to “income inequalities”, points Paul Guerby, gynecologist-obstetrician.
“We feel a bit as if we were going to pass out,” says Tiffany Berlan, waiting for the time of his consultation, in the waiting room of motherhood.
Dailywhen she goes out, the young woman explains that she has become used to “walking with a bottle of frozen water”, for “more duration” and drinking “four liters of water per day. “
Sunny has become painful and worrying for her: “I have a hyper-chaud” to the point of feeling “like burns”.
Forced to isolate oneself on the advice of his midwifeTiffany Berlan saw his pregnancy in front of the two fans of his apartment and takes several Showers per day. But “it’s still very complicated”, she breathes.
The dayit is hot “indoors and outside”, while at night, when temperatures remain high, it “wakes up several times” because of heat.
Hospitalizations increasing
Her little Livia aged two days In her arms, Céline Pauez recovers slowly from her delivery, sitting on the bed of her hospital room.
Control are still around her legs, the young woman had “blood circulation problems” forcing her to do “pressotherapy”.
She says she is “happy” that the temperatures have come down because the feeling of heat is amplified “with hormones“.
During her pregnancy, Céline Paye felt a lot of contractions And “big pains”, she said, accentuated when approaching childbirth.
Because of a “greater metabolism”, the pregnant women have “a cardiac output, a functioning of the kidneys, the heart, more intense”, notes Paul Guerby.
A process that results in “a continuous effort test” gradually increasing until childbirth, he adds.
The heat wave, which has touched France in two waves this summer, can have heavy consequences on pregnant women and their pregnancy, to the point that hospitalizations and emergency consultations increase in periods of high heat to CHU de Toulouse.
Dehydration, the main effect, according to Paul Guerby, can lead to “heat strokes, discomfort”, “uterine contractions” or even Intense pain Due to the pinch “urinary tract during pregnancy”.
At the service he directs, the gynecologist Observe “more premature deliveries during periods of high heat and heat wave”.
Stay in fresh places and “strictly exceed the 2,5 litres liquid and water per day, “remain the best means, for pregnant women, to protect themselves from heat, advises the professor.
According to a large Study published in November 2024 in the journal Nature Medicine, high temperatures increased multiple risks for pregnant women, which range from premature births to the death of the newborn, including congenital malformations.
“The growing exposure to heat is a major threat to the health of mothers and newborns,” warn the authors of this work done by compiling near 200 studies.
With AFP.