These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Seven children -- four alive.
    Author: Mcconahay MJ.
    Journal: Sierra; 1993; 78(6):62-9, 98-101. PubMed ID: 12318502.
    Abstract:
    The author reports her observations on the status of women, maternal and child health, and access to family planning services in parts of Guatemala. Her comments refer specifically to experiences in the Mezquital squatter settlement around the capital of Guatemala City, the town of Puerto Abajo 60 miles northwest of Mezquital, highland villages, and the Peten province to the North. Guatemala's population is doubling every 22 years. 10 million individuals currently inhabit the country, thus making it the most populous of Central American nations. Only 23% of Guatemalan women, however, use family planning facilities, far fewer than would like to, were services more widely available. This low rate of exposure to, and use of, contraception results in the largely expected high average of 6 children per woman in Guatemala. Guatemala is a Catholic and very conservative country; the government has not encouraged family planning and abortion is barely considered. Women in Guatemala need access to family planning services, but also education, employment, housing, and the opportunity to make productive contributions to the country. Further, single mothers and heads of households find it difficult to provide for the daily basic needs of the family, let alone worry about contraception. Basic health services protecting against preventable causes of morbidity such as cholera and intestinal worms must be provided before family sizes may be reduced and general development may take place.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]