The Birth
Uruguay is among the countries with the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the world.
The largest number of maternity cases, as well as the most complex of Uruguay are atended at the Women's Hospital "Dra. Paulina Luisi " in the Pereira Rossell Hospital Center. The teen pregnancy rate atended was 26%. While in Uruguay there are 60 teenage pregnancies per 1,000 inhabitants, the global average is 49.
For the authorities it has always meant a problem: more prematurity, lower birth weight, higher prevalence of congenital syphilis, the reproduction of poverty and 85% of teenage mothers who left the education system.
Most young people I spoke with decided to have their children and it never crossed their minds to abort. The professionals working at the hospital reported that in their respective neighborhoods, these young women no longer belong to street rods, they charge to a higher status, that of being a mother.
Being a teenage mother in the neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city has another connotation that a middle or upper class girl wouldn’t have. For a teenage mother from a lower socioeconomical status a child is a proper object, a possession from which no one can deprive her. Her child becomes a way to approach a higher level in the social ladder, it’s a life project.
Results of a field study conclude that they tend to repeat the patterns of their mothers, who mosttly were also teenagers as them. From a 23 patient sample, 19 were born to a teenagers. Their closest references has been very young mothers, which is well regarded in their communities and neighborhoods.