Discover the 10 municipalities that are red flags
For the third consecutive year, infant motherhood worsened in Yucatán in 2023. Not only did the number of births increase, but there was also a case of an 11-year-old girl, who is in the fifth grade of primary school, giving birth, reported the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) of Mexico, when it released the final birth figures for 2023 on September 25.
In Yucatán, according to Inegi, 127 babies were born to girls aged 11 to 14 in 2023, an increase of 8.5% compared to the 117 births in 2022 and a 28.2% increase compared to the 99 births to girls under 15 in 2021.
Thus, in the last three years of the governorship of now-Senator Mauricio Vila Dosal, the social and health problem of infant motherhood in Yucatán has worsened.
In 2023 alone, every 69 hours, a girl aged 11 to 14 gave birth in Yucatán, according to Inegi.
Additionally, Inegi breaks down that the young mothers in Yucatán in 2023 included one girl aged 11, 29 aged 13, and 97 aged 14, while in 2022 there were seven aged 12, 19 aged 13, and 91 aged 14.
The “top ten” red flags of infant motherhood in Yucatán
In both 2022 and 2023, Yucatán had 38 municipalities identified as red flags for infant motherhood. The “top ten,” which changed in 2023 with the exception that Mérida still leads, is as follows:
1. Mérida is the biggest red flag for infant motherhood, with 30 births to girls under 15 in 2023: one to an 11-year-old, seven to 13-year-olds, and 22 to 14-year-olds. In 2021, there were 15 births, and in 2022, there were 25, so the number of young mothers in Mérida increases year by year.
2. Oxkutzcab, with 10 births: five to 13-year-olds and five to 14-year-olds in 2023. The previous year, it was eighth, with only four cases, all to 14-year-old mothers.
3. Tizimín, with nine births: one to a 13-year-old and eight to 14-year-olds. In 2022, it was fifth, with six births, all to 14-year-olds.
Progreso climbs 14 places in infant motherhood
4. Progreso, with seven cases: one 13-year-old and six 14-year-olds. It climbed 14 places, as in 2022, it was sixteenth, with two births to girls, one aged 13 and one aged 14.
5. Kanasín, with six young mothers, all aged 14. In 2022, it was second, with 14 births: two to 12-year-olds, two to 13-year-olds, and 10 to 14-year-olds.
6. Ticul, with six births, two to 13-year-olds and four to 14-year-olds. In 2022, it was among the 19 municipalities that occupied the last place, with one baby born to a 14-year-old.
7. Peto, with five young mothers: one aged 13 and four aged 14. In 2022, it was the third red flag, with nine births: four to 13-year-olds and five to 14-year-olds.
8. Valladolid, also with five young mothers, all aged 14. In 2022, it had only one, aged 13.
9. Izamal, with four births to girls: one aged 13 and three aged 14. In 2022, it had a single case of infant motherhood: a 13-year-old.
10. Motul, with four births, all to 14-year-olds. In 2022, it was the eighth red flag, with four births: three to 12-year-olds and one to a 14-year-old.
Sure, here’s the translation:
Childhood Maternity in Mexico
The Inegi also reports that childhood maternity remains a social and health issue present in all 32 states of Mexico. In 2023, there were 6,798 births to Mexican girls aged 10 to 14.
Fifteen states were red flags because girls as young as 10 years old gave birth to 108 babies. The leader was Baja California, with 44 births in mothers of this age group; followed by Guerrero, with 14 births; Sinaloa, with 10; Chiapas, Chihuahua, and Durango, with three each; Mexico City and San Luis Potosí, with two each; and Guanajuato, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Nayarit, Sinaloa, Tlaxcala, and Zacatecas, with one each.
However, in terms of the total number of births to girls aged 10 to 14 in 2023, the red flags were the states of Chiapas, with 805; State of Mexico, with 570; and Veracruz, with 457.
At the other end of the spectrum were Baja California Sur, with 28 births to Mexican girls aged 10 to 14; Colima, with 35; and Aguascalientes, with 50.
In turn, Yucatán is the eighteenth red flag for childhood maternity in Mexico and the first in the Yucatán Peninsula, where Campeche is second, with 72 births to girls aged 10 to 14 in 2023, and Quintana Roo is third, with 70 births.
Campeche and Quintana Roo rank 26th and 27th in the country, meaning they are the eighth and seventh lowest in childhood maternity, respectively.
Source: Diario de Yucatan
