Work

Thermal comfort and CO₂ concentration in maternity wards: a repeated cross-sectional study comparing two winter campaigns in a naturally ventilated heritage hospital

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Optimizing maternity ward environments requires a delicate balance between the warmth needed by newborns, the comfort of postpartum mothers, and the ventilation demands of shared, continuously occupied spaces. Despite this complexity, empirical data from naturally ventilated heritage hospitals remains scarce. This cross-sectional study compared two winter campaigns conducted six years apart in the same hospital. The results revealed that air temperature and CO₂ concentration were lower in 2026 than in 2020, with mean CO 2 falling by approximately 30% (p < 0.001). The Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) remained close to neutral in both campaigns (Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied < 8%), yet thermal sensation vote (TSV) indicated a perception of warmth, resulting in a PMV–TSV discrepancy of approximately +1.3 to +1.9. Preference for cooler conditions roughly doubled (from 36% to 73%), while overall comfort declined. The findings highlight the need for population-specific thermal comfort targets in maternity settings and guidelines that explicitly address the hybrid character of rooming-in wards, which current standards treat solely as either patient rooms or newborn nurseries, but never as both.

Source: Results in Engineering

DOI: 10.1016/j.rineng.2026.111750