Nutrition, Poverty, and High-Risk Maternity in Guatemala and Mexico

Guatemala and Mexico, and many other countries in Latin America remain among the nations where pregnant women and their children are victims of the poor healthcare system and substandard educational conditions.

A child’s nutrition begins with a mother’s adequate food and vitamin intake, as well as the ideal periodic check-ups with a gynecologist that can offer constant assistance, appropriate medical prescriptions, and the certainty that a woman’s pregnancy is going as best as possible. However, these ideal conditions are generally not possible for many women and children in third-world countries like Guatemala and Mexico.

Malnutrition and its Forms

While malnutrition is often referred to as a condition where children or adults are underweight, the term actually stands for deficiencies or excesses in nutrient intake, imbalance of essential nutrients or impaired nutrient utilization. This means that the term can be used to refer to a patient who is under or overweight.

Lastly, underweight is only one of the forms of undernutrition. The latter can manifest in wasting, stunting, underweight, and micronutrient deficiencies.

Here are some relevant terms that we all should be aware of when referring to malnutrition:

term	definition
wasting	low weight-for-height indicates recent and severe weight loss
stunting	low height-for-age result of chronic or recurrent undernutrition prevents children from reaching their physical and cognitive potential
underweight	low weight-for-age
micronutrient deficiencies	lack of vitamins and minerals that are essential for body functions
	Information available at Malnutrition WHO

Did You Know?

Globally, by 2021:

• 149 million children under 5 were affected by stunting

• 45 million children under 5 were affected by wasting

• 39 million children under 5 were affected by overweight

• 0.7 million children in Latin America and the Caribbean are affected by wasting

• Although most children with malnutrition live in Africa and Asia, Guatemala remains among the countries with very high stunting prevalence, with over 30% of children under 5 affected by such condition.

Breastfeeding and its Vital Role

A child’s nutrition starts with breastfeeding, which is why breastfeeding is recommended to be a baby’s exclusive form of nutrition for the first six months of their life. Furthermore, solid complementary foods should be introduced slowly and carefully to a child’s organism.

Breastfeeding has crucial roles, not only in a person’s early years but in the rest of their lives. Breastfeeding prevents conditions and outcomes such as childhood leukemia, sudden infant death syndrome, and it improves a baby's cognitive development. Breastfeeding also prevents overweight and type-2 diabetes in children, and it also prevents diabetes, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer in the mother.

Sadly, these benefits are not an option for some children in Latin America, where corrupt governments neglect their inhabitants and fail to provide adequate health care for pregnant women, children, and teenagers—the most crucial life stages for a person’s ideal growth and well-being.

Despite all the wonderful benefits and the apparent simplicity of this essential habit, only 37.34% of children under 6 months of age in Latin America and the Caribbean are exclusively breastfed on average.

Maternal Mortality and Child Malnutrition in Guatemala and Mexico

Children and adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean usually face more than one form of malnutrition: undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight/obesity.

Malnourishment in children is often a result of malnourished mothers who do not have the appropriate nutrient intake during their pregnancy and who do not or cannot take care of them properly after birth.

By 2017, it was estimated that the proportion of maternal mortality in Guatemala was 95 for every 100, 000 live born children. Although it is a high number, it represented a 41% reduction from the same proportion estimated by the year 2000. In comparison, the proportion of maternal mortality in Mexico was 33 for every 100, 000 live born children

Additionally, in 2019, it was estimated that 348 premature deaths for every 100, 000 inhabitants could have been avoided in Guatemala.

Furthermore, the Panamerican Health Organization provides charts for the most important demographic rates regarding child and mother health, healthcare, and child and mother mortality. Here are some of the most relevant indicators regarding maternal and child nutrition and health for Guatemala and Mexico.

Indicator	Guatemala	Mexico
Annual births (expressed in thousands)	372.3	1866.4
Women that attend prenatal healthcare since the first trimerster	68%	74.6%
Children with low weight at birth	10%	6.7%
Prevalence of children under 5 years of age with slow growth	42.8%	12.1%
Breastfeeding exclusively in infants under 6 months*	53.2%	27.1%
Children under 5 years of age with chronic undernutrition (wasting, weight-for-height)	0.8%	1.6%
View more relevant indicators. Dashboard of indicators

Although there is a clear difference between both countries we can see that most of these indicators are significant in relation to both countries’ population.

It is startling to notice that, for instance, many mothers are forced to keep breastfeeding* their children after six months of age because there is a possibility that they cannot afford solid and proper foods that their babies should be introduced to so they can have proper growth and nutrition.

Furthermore, the fact that only 68% of pregnant women attend prenatal care since the first trimester is testament to the lack of healthcare access and prenatal education that women have in Guatemala.

Prenatal Care and Lack of Sexual Education

Many mothers-to-be do not know the first thing about prenatal care, therefore, they never consider it a necessary step in their pregnancy. Other women know that they should get prenatal care but they either live far away from a health center or they cannot afford the medications or supplements that they require.

Sadly, many women that get pregnant in third-world countries like Mexico and Guatemala, do not even get to choose if they want to get pregnant, as many of them are victims of sexual violence at a young age, when they haven’t even been taught about sexual education or what being pregnant is really like.

Many girls in rural areas do not have access to sexual education because their families still consider it a taboo and an “inapropriate” subject to discuss, so they grow and develop as teenagers and young adults not know what to expect of sexual encounters and the result is most likely unplanned motherhood and a life of uncertainty.

Every single girl should be protected against unplanned pregnancies, and every pregnant woman, regardless of her economic situation, should be able to access the best healthcare possible to ensure her well-being as well as her child’s.

Organizations like Global Opportunity are essential in areas where all the situations mentioned above put women and children at risk of suffering malnutrition, maternal or infant death, or other severe conditions like cervical cancer.

For over a decade, Global Opportunity has been working as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) through a system of direct contact between donors and beneficiaries.

Donors from the United States and other countries have contributed to the development of medical and educational programs for children, teenagers, and vulnerable mothers-to-be.

Global Opportunity has taken the labor of instructing women in prenatal, natal, and postnatal stages to avoid malnutrition in themselves and their children.

We have boosted programs such as mobile clinics and a hospital to prevent cervical cancer and malnutrition in infants.

We work towards putting an end to the cycle of generational poverty by improving access to quality education and healthcare. Our ultimate goal is to improve life conditions of indigenous families in rural areas and to protect their basic human rights.

Global Opportunity was created to promote populations’ right to access healthcare, education, and employment, by providing mobile health services, formal educational programs, and training for the management of sustainable, organic, and fair-trade agriculture.

You can also be a part of huge, impactful causes like this one! Make a donation, sponsor a child or a school and make a difference in a kid’s life today.