Teenage pregnancy is one of the biggest challenges that developing economies have been dragging for many years. Causes of this phenomenon are multifactorial but it is definitely linked to poverty and low level of education, being more common in rural areas.
Data from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that Mexico is one of the countries with the highest rate of teenage pregnancies. It is estimated that around 1,252 births with a mother ranging between 12 to 19 years are recorded in the country every day. Since there are 6,260 total daily childbirths, one fifth of mothers in Mexico are teenagers.
According to reports from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), it is estimated that more than half of the adolescent population in Mexico lives in such poverty that keeps them from meeting their nutritional needs adequately. It is estimated that only 7% of young people that become parents at young ages, have sufficient financial resources to support their families. For this reason, teenage pregnancies represent a high pressure to the social security system.
And this pressure to the system is not the most important, but the health risks linked to teenager pregnancy, since the mortality rate among adolescents during childbirth is higher as they are not physically prepared for pregnancy, and babies from teen mothers also present substantial health risks.
Furthermore, the personal development of teen parents is commonly diminished. Most people who become parents too young are forced to abandon their studies. Official data report that 80% of teen parents drop out of their education. When the educational aspirations of this large number of teenagers are cut off , employment opportunities in a globalized economy are dramatically reduced, since the only thing that gives them access to better employment and income opportunities are the technical skills acquired through education.
Due to this situation, the Federal Government launched the National Strategy for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention last Friday, which primary objective is to reduce 50 percent the pregnancy rate of adolescents between 15 and 19 by 2030.
This strategy is based on eight guiding axes that are presented below:
- Joint work between the public, private and social sectors.
- Provide information, education and health quality services to young people, enabling them to make responsible decisions.
- Males, and not just females, should have an essential part in the responsible exercise of sexual activity.
- Encourage skills development of youths so they can define their long-term goals responsibly.
- The strategy includes specific lines of action to create synergies between authorities, parents, school communities, health personal and adolescents themselves.
- The strategy considers youths as subjects of their own development.
- Measures’ effect will be tested with pilot programs before expanding nationwide use.
- Evaluation and accountability.
During the event, Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said that this is a strategy of comprehensive and multi-sectorial nature and, at the same time, focused; bringing the programs closer to the places where the teens are.
“It is about that, in Mexico, there is not a single pregnancy resulting from ignorance or worse, abuse, but always resulting from an informed decision and the responsible exercise our freedoms,” he added.
Maria del Rosario Cardenas Elizalde, professor at the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM), said that according to the World Health Organization (WHO), each year occur around 16 million births from women aged 15-19 years worldwide. Besides, she added that the pregnancy rate among adolescents in middle-income countries is more than double that observed in high-income nations; whereas in low income countries is up to five times higher.
Por su parte, María del Rosario Cárdenas Elizalde, académica de la Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, explicó que de acuerdo con la Organización Mundial de la Salud, cada año ocurren en el mundo alrededor de 16 millones de nacimientos en mujeres de entre 15 y 19 años. Agregó que las tasas de embarazo en la población adolescente en los países de ingreso medio ha ascendido al doble de la observada en las naciones de ingreso alto; mientras que en las de ingreso bajo se eleva hasta cinco veces más.
Only in 2013, 467,000 children under 20 years had a baby; this figure includes 11,000 girls 10-14 years old who became mothers during that year.
Source: Milenio, El Financiero
