The Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health Hosts Climate Emergency Preparedness Workshop

On June 11, the Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health hosted a Climate Emergency Preparedness Workshop for healthcare providers in the New York City region. Developed by Dr. Blair Wylie, Director of the Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health, this workshop was designed to increase knowledge, preparedness, and resources for supporting maternal-infant health during climate emergencies such as heat waves and associated electrical grid overload, extreme weather events and flooding, as well as air pollution from wildfires.

This educational event’s agenda included a review of organization’s Emergency Operations Plans, with a focus on analyzing the people, processes, and products necessary to properly respond to maternal-child health needs in climate emergencies. After engaging in a thorough analysis of how current Emergency Operations Plans account for maternal-child health needs, attendees were tasked with identifying places for optimization and improvement.

Dr. Blair Wylie, Director of the Collaborative for Women’s Environmental Health, posed the following question to participants at the beginning of the day, “as obstetricians and others caring for pregnant women and newborns, why is there a need for us focus on climate emergencies? Put simply, climate change is the largest global threat to human health that we are currently facing and these climate emergencies are already happening now, increasing in frequency, negatively impacting the health of our patients, and widening perinatal disparities."

The workshop hosted experts from over 15 hospitals, community-based maternal child health organizations, and municipal health and emergency management offices to facilitate discussions and preparedness planning activities.

By the end of the workshop, attendees were left with an empowering call to action-to develop a collective voice in New York City to foster a culture of collaboration and proactive engagement which serves to protect the most vulnerable groups during climate emergencies. As the climate crisis intensifies, this group of experts will continue a vital dialogue on maternal-child health promotion during climate emergencies, sharing insights, best practices, and resources to support preparedness and response efforts.