Childbearing during adolescence is recognized worldwide as a factor that impairs the reproductive health and well-being of young women, as well as the overall pace and direction of a country’s development.1 In Nicaragua, where economic and political upheaval have severely compromised the country’s health care, educational and social service systems, the challenge of reducing high levels of adolescent childbearing is great.
Maternidad temprana en Nicaragua: un desafío constante
Reproductive rights are under attack. Will you help us fight back with facts?
Key Points
Key Points
•Among Nicaraguan women 20–24 years old, six in 10 had entered a union and almost half had had a child before their 20th birthday. •A quarter of all births in Nicaragua—35,000 per year—are to 15–19-year-olds.
•Rural women, who have less education, on average, than their urban counterparts, are more likely than city dwellers to enter a union and become mothers during adolescence.
•The proportion of 20–24-year-olds who had a child during adolescence is more than twice as high among the poorest as among those in the highest socioeconomic category. •Nearly half—45%—of births to adolescent women are unplanned, a level that varies little by women’s urban-rural residence and their educational achievement.
•Among all sexually active women aged 15–19 (in union and not in union), 86% do not want a child in the next two years, and 36% have an unmet need for effective contraception. Unmet need for family planning is equally high in urban and rural areas.
•The strong link between low educational attainment and early motherhood suggests that improving educational opportunities for girls is a promising way of reducing high levels of adolescent childbearing in Nicaragua.