{"id":147,"date":"2018-10-02T07:56:38","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T07:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/?p=147"},"modified":"2023-05-11T19:53:21","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T19:53:21","slug":"a-teen-mothers-take-on-contraception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/2018\/10\/02\/a-teen-mothers-take-on-contraception\/","title":{"rendered":"A Teen Mother\u2019s Take On Contraception"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/strong><\/p>\n

During any process, and especially in something as sensitive as sexual health, it\u2019s important to get feedback, and who better to give it to us than Karol, the first girl to receive contraception through our program. We invited Karol to come chat at our\u00a0new office and she hurried over from her house, just a few blocks away in one of the shantytowns in Zone 3. It was the first time in months we had seen her without her one-year-old son, Benjamin.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the same. All [the other organizations] treat you like you were just another just another number, but here\u2026here they treat you like a real person.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Zone 3, and in Guatemala at large, access to contraception is technically available. By law, young people have the right to both information and contraception. However, the mismatch between law and practice is evident to everyone, especially young people in marginalized communities. As Karol reminds us, the hoops one must jump through in order to receive contraception make it very unlikely that young person will actually take advantage. Young people are expected to go to their local medical center before sunrise and stand in a line for most of the day, completely exposed to all the gossip that will arise about why they need contraception at all. This means missing a full day of school or work. After all that, many young people are turned away because they do not have parental consent, even though Guatemalan law states that it is not necessary. Karol laughed when she told us this, \u201cWho would tell their parents they are having sex?\u201d The failure for legislation to be implemented in practice contributes to the low rates of contraceptive use among sexually active adolescents and sheds light on why half of mothers in the community had their first pregnancy as teenagers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Karol echoes so many of the young people who have sought help from us. Guatemala Youth Initiative strives to be accessible to the young people of these communities, and from the number of young women who have already come in for contraception in the first few weeks, it\u2019s working. A sixteen-year-old girl came in with her 3 year-old and her infant and told us this was the first time she had ever used contraception. Her friend came a week later. Then a cousin, then a neighbor. Word is spreading throughout the community, and young women are flocking to our office. \u201cI don\u2019t want six kids like my mom,\u201d one young woman mentioned as she received an injection. \u201cI\u2019m really not ready to have children. I haven\u2019t even finished school,\u201d another pointed out. Karol\u2019s assessment of our services as accessible and in high demand seems to be holding true for the community at large.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother always told me to stay in school,\u201d Karol remembered, and told us how unwavering that advice remained even when she told her mother of her pregnancy at age 16. Her mother was the only one in her family or personal life encouraging her to further her education instead of becoming a full-time mother. \u201cIf you can give your child a better future by staying in school,\u201d her mother said, \u201cno one will be suffering.\u201d \u00a0So, with the advice of her mother and the scholarship from Guatemala Youth Initiative, Karol continued her studies and is set to graduate next month.<\/p>\n

After the birth of her son, like any young mother, Karol was both excited and overwhelmed. But, through conversation, it became clear just how sure she was that she did not want another child in the near future. So, she became the first beneficiary in our sexual health program, and now, because of the Jadelle implant, she is protected from unplanned pregnancy for five years. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t like to depend on people,\u201d Karol told us, and that\u2019s why this method was perfect for her: now she\u2019s in control of her own future.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201c[Contraception] would be a huge help for young people,\u201d Karol continued, recounting story after story of her\u00a0friends who also have become mothers before the age of 20. \u201cFor\u00a0example, I never thought I would be the one to get pregnant,\u201d she reminded us. The culture of Zone 3 is to tell your daughters to be careful, but never to tell them how. She told us all about the myths in the community regarding sexuality, and how she learned about sexuality through conversations with her peers in the street. \u201cYou can\u2019t get pregnant the first time you have sex,\u201d was something Karol heard over and over, usually followed by \u201cnor if you do it standing up.\u201d Young women are advised to \u201ctake a shower after sex to wash out any sperm or STD.\u201d With adults and schools ignoring the subject entirely, young people are left to discover sexuality, and often times pregnancy, alone and with misguided information about sexual and reproductive health.<\/p>\n

Karol expressed interest in joining us in our efforts to provide sexual education to the youth of Zone 3. \u201cI think I could help, because I\u2019m still in school after my pregnancy, and well, my parents didn\u2019t support [my studies] and neither did the father of my child,\u201d she said, with a proud smile. \u201cI\u2019d like to help them, like you\u2019ve helped me,\u201d Karol told us, \u201cI want to help the girls take care of themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Karol was 16, pregnant, and without much support. Today, she is ready to join the mission and change the culture she was raised in. What a legacy for her to leave.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent ac nibh vestibulum, laoreet ipsum quis, vestibulum nisi.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1598,"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/1598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iniciativaguatemala.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}