Effects of Temperature Shocks on Maternal Morbidity in Colombia

This paper analyzes the impact of narrow changes in temperature exposure during pregnancy on maternal morbidity in Colombia. Using administrative individual-level health service records and high-resolution daily weather data at the municipality level, I find that the rate of healthcare utilization during pregnancy and delivery increases monotonically with temperature. Services like hospitalizations increase by 1.69% with each additional day above 29◦C compared to the reference bin of [21, 23)◦C. In contrast, services requiring less time under direct observation or that are primarily outpatient (i.e., emergency room visits, consultations, and medical procedures) increase by 1%. In a two-month exposure window, each additional day in the highest temperature bin is associated with nearly a 2% increase in hospitalizations, which is double the impact observed for other health services. Women from low socioeconomic conditions and living in rural areas seem to be more affected by temperature shocks, especially in high-level morbidity outcomes, like hospitalizations.