Determining Pregnant Women's Awareness of the Maternal and Fetal Effects of Climate Change: a Cross‐Sectional Study

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this investigation is to ascertain the extent of pregnant women's cognizance of the maternal and fetal consequences of climate change, as well as the factors that contribute to this awareness. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional and descriptive study. It was conducted at a state hospital's obstetrics and gynecology outpatient clinic between June 1, 2025, and September 30, 2025. The Climate Change Awareness Scale-Pregnant (CCAS-P) and a Personal Information Form were employed to gather data for the study. RESULTS: The research indicated that the average age of the pregnant women was 31.74 ± 5.97 years, the average gestational age was 25.06 ± 11.36 weeks, the average number of children was 1.81 ± 1.46, and the average total score on the CCAS-P was 87.63 ± 10.81. The educational status and presence of chronic disease of the pregnant women were associated with general awareness (respectively, p < 0.001, t:.-3.846; p < 0.001, t:10.820), maternal awareness (respectively, p < 0.001, t:.-3.834; p < 0.001, t:8.197), and fetal awareness (respectively, p < 0.001, t:.-4.419; p < 0.001, t:8.675) subscale scores, and CCAS-P total scores (respectively, p < 0.001, t:.-4.262; p < 0.001; t:11295) were found to be significantly different (p < 0.001). Furthermore, age (β = 0.12, p = 0.016), education level (β = -0.210, p < 0.001), and presence of chronic disease (β = 0.56, p < 0.001) were determined to be important predictors of the CCAS-P total score. CONCLUSIONS: The awareness of pregnant women concerning the maternal and fetal effects of climate change were determined to be above average and correlated with socio-demographic, obstetric, and several other factors.