Brazil sees fall in teenage pregnancy rate

Criado em 04/11/13 15h34 e atualizado em 04/11/13 16h26
Por Mariana Tokarnia Edição:s Fonte:Agência Brasil

Brasília – Pregnancy cases among women under the age of twenty declined all across the country from 2000 to 2012, according to the Ministry of Health. Early in the decade, Brazil had around 750 thousand young mothers – in 2012, this number was reduced to 536 thousand.

The Ministry regards the “Stork Network” (Portuguese: Rede Cegonha), a program launched in 2011, and the “Health in School” (Portuguese: Saúde na Escola), an initiative in effect since 2007 and developed in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, as the main strategies for teenage pregnancy prevention and treatment.

Thereza de Lamare, coordinator of the Teenager and Young Person’s Health, linked to the Ministry of Health, announced that the Health in School program benefits 85% of the country’s municipalities. The Stork Network encompasses nearly the entire country. These programs aim at teenage pregnancy prevention and education. Additionally,  to enable young mothers not to leave school is one of the goals of these programs.

Last week, the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA), an agency linked to the United Nations (UN), released an annual report entitled World Population Situation, which demonstrates that most early pregnancies are found in vulnerable populations. The Ministry’s strategy is to include isolated populations as well, such as descendents of slaves, indigenous and homeless people.

Another measure adopted by the government involves making the access to birth control methods easier and wider in public health-care centers and drugstores registered under the "Popular Drugstore Here" program (Portuguese: Aqui Tem Farmácia Popular), women in fertile age may choose from a range of birth control methods, such as condoms, monthly or quarterly injectable contraceptives, mini-pills, combined pills, diaphragms and IUD’s. During the last five years, Brazil’s Unified Public Health Care System (“SUS”) gave out approximately 500 million condoms.

In order to spread the word also outside the school, young people may see their Teenagers’ Health Booklet (for both sexes) on the internet, as well as other materials that focus on sexual education. They can also ask related questions online.

Editors: Fábio Massalli / Nira Foster
Translator: Fabrício Ferreira

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