In the little West African community of Keneba, Edrisa Sinjanka is devoted to his vocation as a midwife. “I really love my job, I love helping pregnant women in labour,” he states.
However, it’s not always that simple. Women frequently complain of headaches, dehydration, and cracked lips when they visit Sinjanka. It takes a lot of energy to be pregnant, and some women are too exhausted to push during labor. He’s also noticing other unsettling things. Sometimes you see ladies who have had stillbirths, and you think, what’s going on? Why are these issues facing expectant mothers?”
Sinjanka believes that these catastrophes are related to the high temperatures in Gambia. He has observed that pregnant women who work in protected offices do not have the same symptoms of heat stress as his patients, who are primarily subsistence field workers who toil under the scorching sun for hours each day.
Sinjanka joined a local research project in 2019 as the on-site field coordinator in Keneba because of this issue. Under the guidance of Ana Bonell, a clinical expert from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) stationed at its Gambia Medical Research Unit, the study sought to comprehend the effects of heat stress on the physiology of expectant mothers engaged in subsistence farming, as well as the implications for their developing fetuses.Oftentimes, subsistence farmers are absent from it.
