Coping with extreme heat in primary maternity care: An ethnography of frontline health workers in rural Zimbabwe
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Highlights: •Health workers deliver maternity care in conditions of extreme, escalating heat. •First empirical qualitative study in Africa to examine how staff navigate extreme heat in maternity wards. •First qualitative ethnography globally to apply Adaptive Thermal Comfort Theory to clinical labour. •Heat adaptation emerges as a collective, resource-dependent, institutional and material process. •Protecting frontline staff from extreme heat is essential for climate-resilient health systems.
Authors: Fortunate Machingura, Tariro Chinozvina, Stanley Luchters, Brian Sibanda, Calvin Kunaka, Leslie Nyoni, Bongani Mutimutema, Elizabeth Dangaiso, Thabani Muronzie, Jetina Tsvaki, Concilia Mutasa, Madonna Mlambo, Samson Chikura, Progress Chiworeka, Llyod Pisa, Tatenda Makanga, George Mapiye, Cremance Tshuma, Isabelle Lange, Nasser Fardousi, Matthew Chersich, Veronique Filippi
Language: English
Subfield: Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $1,720
Awards: Co-produced, complex heat adaptation interventions to reduce heat impacts on pregnant women and newborns in Southern Africa: an intervention development and feasibility evaluation study, G4443155986, Heat Indicators for Global Health (HIGH Horizons): monitoring, Early Warning Systems and health facility interventions for pregnant and postpartum women, infants and young children and health workers
OpenAlex ID: W7128698433