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Jinotega, Nicaragua
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Promoting maternal sexual and reproductive health awareness
Background
© AECID
Nicaragua has one of the highest adolescent fertility rates in the world. Research shows that the consequences of adolescent childbearing include higher risks of pregnancy complications and maternal mortality (adolescent girls are up to five times more likely to die from complica¬tions of pregnancy than women in their 20s). Teenage pregnancies are also correlated with increased rates of infant mortality and malnutrition, lower levels of education for the mother and their children, and an elevated risk of poverty.
Our Local Partner
The Casa Materna Cihuatlampa in the region of Jinotega is a maternal waiting home for rural women with high obstetric risk. It shelters an average of 300 mothers yearly, almost 5000 women in its 15 years of operations. A quarter of the women it shelters are adolescent.
Click here for a feature on our partner >>
Our Project
The Mothers at Risk Fund is supporting a one-year-long community outreach program in maternal, sexual and reproductive health awareness in Jinotega and surrounding villages. This program aims to ensure that adolescents who are already pregnant receive proper prenatal care and are attended in delivery by skilled personnel; and to help reduce the number of unwanted adolescent pregnancies through information and awareness-raising.
© Kathleen Beckmann
Fifty community promoters (midwives, health promoters and youth leaders) will be trained in maternal, sexual and reproductive health issues and in community outreach techniques, including peer-to-peer education. They will subsequently go into the communities to raise awareness through workshops, focus groups, visits to schools and presentations in communities and in the Casa Materna. The program aims to reach around 4000 people.
Click here for a press release on the Health and Dignity for Women Award given to the Director of the Casa Materna Jinotega
Click here for more information about this project.
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