Bushfire danger: Smoke puts lives of mothers and babies at risk

Canberra, Australia – Mother-of-two Caitlin Buttress knew about the dangers of bushfires, but never thought to worry about the smoke. “I watch a lot of news so I felt as well informed as I could be, but no one ever said to me that my baby’s problems could be smoke-related,” Buttress said, glancing at three-month-old baby Emily dozing next to her. Emily was born in mid-June, two weeks early and slightly underweight. Buttress had just entered the second trimester of her pregnancy when massive bushfires swept through southeastern New South Wales (NSW), sending Canberra’s Air Quality Index to 434 – anything above 200 is considered hazardous – on New Year’s Day 2020. “I had two miscarriages last year, so I was already worried about losing her,” Buttress said. “It’s already hard to breathe when you’re pregnant, so the bushfire smoke made it even more exhausting. I felt physically ill.” “You feel so responsible as a mother,” Buttress adds. “Did I put her at risk?” While it is hard to pinpoint exactly what causes health issues in babies, doctors say the catastrophic bushfires that ravaged Australia in 2019 and 2020 probably contributed to problems with newborns. “Last summer was a terrible bushfire season,” Dr Steve Robson, Buttress’s obstetrician-gynaecologist told Al Jazeera. “The region had the worst air quality in the world at the time.” Caitlin Buttress with six-month-old Emily. She is worried the smoke from Australia’s catastrophic bushfires may have affected her baby’s health [Kate Walton/Al Jazeera]Bushfire smoke contains a complex mixture of chemicals, gases, and solid particles. Tiny particles like PM2.5 are particularly dangerous because they penetrate deep into the respiratory system and bloodstream. “Women tend to bear the brunt of climate change globally,” said Dr Robson, with pregnant women particularly susceptible. Research from the United States – where the west coast has also endured devastating wildfires – shows that prolonged exposure to the smoke during pregnancy increases the risk of high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, premature birth, and low birth weight. Dr Robson acknowledges it is hard to attribute health outcomes to bushfire smoke, but he cannot see what else could have caused the complications he has seen this year. “All I can go on is what I personally experienced,” Dr Robson said. “Babies born during the height of the smoke ended up in ICU with breathing problems that we couldn’t explain.” Dr Robson is also seeing unusual developments in women who were in the early stages of pregnancy in January. “Their babies that are inexplicably small, and there are abnormalities with the placentas … This is not something I usually see.” ‘Grainy and coming apart’ With bushfires becoming more severe and more common, doctors and scientists are increasingly concerned about the health of women and babies. General practitioner Dr Rebecca McGowan, who works in Albury in rural New South Wales, is another doctor speaking out after an alarming recent birth. “This woman’s baby was small, but the horrifying thing was her placenta. She wore a mask and she’s never smoked in her life, but her placenta looked like that of a pack a day smoker,” Dr McGowan told Al Jazeera. The placenta was in such bad condition – “grey, grainy, and coming apart” – that the woman needed surgery to remove it. On the NSW south coast, where bushfires raged for 74 days before being extinguished, obstetrician-gynaecologist Dr Michael Holland said he has seen similar problems. “We’ve had an increased number of pregnancy complications this year,” Dr Holland said. “There have been three stillbirths, including two due to bleeding … Stillbirth usually affects one percent of pregnancies, mostly due to foetal abnormalities, so these were unusual cases.” style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">