The four largest public maternity hospitals in Greater Santo Domingo report 5,326 teenage births from January to October 2020. Santa Pérez, the coordinator of the Adolescent Unit of the Nuestra Señora de la Altagracia Maternity Hospital, the largest in the country, says that teenage pregnancies are more than 22% of all births. She says that most of the children are born to the poor. The maternity hospitals of Los Mina, La Altagracia, La Mujer and Reynaldo Almánzar, had reported 5,644 adolescent births for all of 2019.
Santa Perez told Diario Libre that the statistics show that pregnant teenagers are 23% of all pregnancies in rural areas, and 19.5% in urban areas. She explained the La Altagracia hospital in Santo Domingo sees between 100 and 200 new consultations of pregnant teenagers every month. She said in this year of Covid-19 many who have become pregnant have not sought medical care.
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Diario Libre
19 November 2020