Mexico: Safe Childbirth – 1995-96
A study of 3,000 urban women in their reproductive years in a working class area of Acapulco revealed that women aged 15-19 years were twice as likely to suffer a complication at childbirth as older women, yet very few of them had received any antenatal advice or had been registered in any of the social security schemes. Overall, only three in every ten women had health care guaranteed by social security and, of these, only two actually received any sort of prenatal examination or advice. Yet the average wait during a prenatal visit was two hours. Caesarian section was common, particularly among women who relied on private practitioners (12.5%).
As the result of these studies, a new strategy was developed in collaboration with one of the four University Schools of Nursing, to provide free coverage with prenatal care as part of the training of nurses and medical students.