Childbearing during adolescence is recognized worldwide as a factor with a profound impact on the wellbeing and reproductive health and rights of young women, and on a country’s overall pace and direction of development. In Guatemala, where limited resources shape the lives of many young people even without the added burden of parenthood, addressing the health and social consequences of high levels of adolescent childbearing is critical.
Early Childbearing in Guatemala: A Continuing Challenge
Reproductive rights are under attack. Will you help us fight back with facts?
Key Points
Key Points
• Guatemala has the third highest adolescent birthrate in Central America—114 births for every 1,000 women aged 15–19 each year.
• Only two-fifths of 20–24-year-old women have completed primary school. The proportion is one in four in rural areas and one in 10 among indigenous women.
• One-half of young women enter into a union (formal or consensual) before their 20th birthday. Three-quarters of those with no schooling do so, compared with one-quarter of those with a primary education or more.
• Forty-four percent of 20–24-year-olds were mothers by age 20; the proportion is highest among young women with no education (68%) and among indigenous women (54%).
• The great majority of 15–19-year-old women in union—83%, with little variation by residence or ethnicity—do not want to have a child in the next two years. However, only 18% are using an effective contraceptive.
• Although 70% of 15–24-year-olds who recently gave birth made at least one prenatal care visit, roughly half of the least educated and of indigenous women made none. Moreover, only half of 15–24-year-old mothers had professional medical care at their most recent delivery; the proportion is even lower among the least educated and indigenous women (one-quarter).