IJCH 2017 Vol.3(3): 179-184 ISSN: 2382-6177
doi: 10.18178/ijch.2017.3.3.097

The Status of Maternal and Child Health in Latin American Countries and Related Policy Measures: Focusing on Teen Pregnancy Problems

S. H. Park
Abstract—Maternal and child health care is a problem to be dealt with by a country's active management, support, and international cooperation. If a mother and child health project in a country fails, the proportion of the socio-economic burden that the country will bear is quite large. In the cases of teen pregnancy and childbirth, which are related to maternal and child health, considering the fact that the prevention effect of maternal and child health is higher for younger individuals, the measures to cope with teen pregnancy and childbirth will have a positive effect on the effectiveness of the maternal and child health projects in that country. In this respect, the study of the current state of Latin American countries with serious teen pregnancy problems and measures for solving this prob-lem is a great help for understanding the effectiveness of ma-ternal and child health projects. The Latin American countries studied in this study were Nicaragua, Honduras, Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic, all of which have a high pregnancy rate for teens. Their common points are that women's human rights are poor, poverty is high, and the education level is low. Therefore, to solve the problem of teen pregnancy in these countries, it is necessary to improve school sex education and solve the problems of wom-en's human rights and social support at the national policy level. Countries facing these problems need to cooperate.

Index Terms—Maternal and child health, teen pregnancy, unwed mothers, Latin America, international cooperation.

S. H. Park is with the Hankuk Foreign Studies, South Academy of Korea (email: shever14@naver.com).(

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Cite: S. H. Park, "The Status of Maternal and Child Health in Latin American Countries and Related Policy Measures: Focusing on Teen Pregnancy Problems," International Journal of Culture and History vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 179-184, 2017.

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