Protecting mothers and babies from the health impacts of heat, fire and floods

Project status: Active

Research area: Population Health > Centre for Community Child Health > Prevention Innovation

Leveraging GenV data to better safeguard against severe weather events

Given the escalating challenges, our team at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute are working to understand the long-term impacts of climate change on children and families.

The challenge

Over recent years we have witnessed unprecedented weather extremes, with Australia experiencing some of the worst catastrophic disasters. Pregnant mothers and their unborn babies are particularly vulnerable as they face increased risks from heat, fires and floods.

These environmental challenges are linked to serious health complications, potentially leading to preterm birth, low birth weight, gestational diabetes and high blood pressure.

Beyond the physical, the additional trauma during pregnancy can trigger maternal depression and mental distress as well as triggering infectious diseases and respiratory issues from poor air quality.

Our approach - Leveraging GenV data

Given the escalating challenges, our team at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute are working to understand the long-term impacts of climate change on children and families.

With the help of the GenV initiative, which is tracking the health and wellbeing of Victorians from birth to old age, we can link information on heat and flood vulnerability and identify policies and interventions that could better safeguard against severe weather events.

GenV is a research initiative designed to advance health and wellbeing in smarter and faster ways, to answer multiple questions such as preterm birth, mental illness, obesity, learning, allergies and more. The project’s primary objective is to create large, parallel whole-of-state birth and parent cohorts for discovery and interventional research.

Gen V will enable researchers to explore the issues affecting Victoria’s children and their families with greater speed and precision than we can today, allowing them to explore the critical links between environmental exposures, genome (genetics), physical characteristics and later outcomes across the life course.

GenV will generate translatable evidence — including novel approaches to prediction, prevention, treatments, and services — to improve future wellbeing and reduce the future disease burden of all children and the adults they become.

Visit the GenV website