PREGNANT women are at risk of contracting cold-related diseases, particularly respiratory infection if they did not take good care of themselves.
And with the weather forecasting centre in Nadi recording cold conditions as low as 13 degrees in Ba yesterday, the Colonial War Memorial Hospital's gynecology department has advised expectant women to keep warm and drink lots of fluid.
Head of CWMH's maternity unit Dr James Fong revealed to The Fiji Times that with the high deliveries, they were also dealing with more cases of respiratory infections in pregnant mothers attributed to the cold weather.
"In pregnancy, they (expectant mothers) are at risk of suffering from infections but the severity of diseases is bad due to the cold climate and they can get pneumonia," Dr Fong said.
He said they were receiving an average of three pneumonia cases per week compared to one every two weeks in warmer months.
"The worst case scenario is that mostly the mothers can get permanent lung damage but it rarely affects babies," Dr Fong said.
He advised women to keep warm, drink a lot of water and visit doctors immediately when they were unwell.
Dr Fong revealed that the CWMH's maternity unit recorded an average of 20-25 deliveries daily compared to an average of 15 in warmer months.
Last month alone, CWMH had 895 deliveries compared to about 600 on average in the warm season.
Meanwhile, the duty forecaster from the weather office in Nadi said Ba recorded 13 degrees yesterday which was the lowest temperature for the year so far.
Lautoka recorded 15 degrees, Nadi 16, Labasa 18.2 and Suva 22.