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Stephanie Sinclair

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Child, Bride, Mother - Guatemala

27 images Created 10 Feb 2015

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  • Aracely, 15, holds her infant. “What I hope is to keep moving forward... to see how I can get my boy ahead. The hard thing, maybe... when he gets older and he leaves... that's when is going to be hard for me. When he is older. Because he is the one who will help me get ahead.<br />
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Aracely is one of the half a million of Guatemalan girls who marry and give birth before they can legally vote, drink, or buy cigarettes. According to a 2012 UN Population Fund survey, 30% of Guatemalan women aged 20-24 were married by 18, and that number may be even higher in rural areas. Teenage births are so common that there’s even a law requiring mothers under 14 to have C-sections, because their hips are too narrow to give birth.
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  • Sulmi, 14, who 9 months pregnant with a girl, at her home. “My family was a little sad when I got married. They said I was really little and it’s a lot of responsibility to take care of someone. I was a little sad to be married so young.  I am in the youngest in my family to be in a union. Getting married is a lot better and prettier because you get to wear a big white dress.”
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  • The premature baby of a 14-year-old girl is treated in the ICU of Hospital San Benito.
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  • Rosario, 14, peers into the neonatal ICU of Hospital San Benito. “Our girls believe they were brought into this world to be a mother,” said Dr. Daniel Alvarez a pediatrician at the hospital. “When she is 12 she is used to raising her siblings. She doesn’t go to school, she is not literate. Some of these girls don’t even learn Spanish, they only use their mother language. At a certain age, the only escape in their mind is to get involved with a boy, and do the same thing… be a mother, be part of the cycle. That’s the cycle we are trying to break. We need to give more power to women to make good choices.”
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  • Manuela, 14, was married at 12 and waits with her one-year-old daughter Dani at the San Benito Youth Clinic in Peten. She travelled more than two hours to the clinic to learn about family planning.
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  • The San Benito Youth Clinic opened in 2010 to address the high rate of teenage motherhood in the area. Since then they have seen more than 6000 cases.
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  • The vitals of young mothers are taken at the San Benito Youth Clinic. “To see a girl having to deal with a baby, it is as if she was playing with dolls [but she isn't]. To me that's shocking,” said Dr. Sayda Acosta, pediatrician and San Benito Youth Clinic director.
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  • Tania, 17, waits with her mother in law at the San Benito Youth Clinic. She was married two years prior and is seven months pregnant with her first child.
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  • A newborn child of a 14-year-old mother is treated in the ICU of Hospital San Benito. The baby boy was born premature and only weighed only 1.3 kilos. “He is still very small and not physically ready yet. His chest muscles get tired very quickly so we cannot remove the tube until he gains some weight,” said pediatrician Dr. Jessica Gonzales. “The mom being only 14 years... really they don't know what they are facing.”
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  • Dr. Daniel Alvarez a pediatrician Hospital San Benito holds very premature baby. “We call these children little miracles because it’s a miracle that he’s alive with the conditions we have in this hospital,” he said. “She was premature, a condition that is associated with adolescent mothers. There is a restriction of growth because the womb is not big enough. Her lungs were not developed enough to be outside of the mother’s womb so early. We didn’t think that she was going to survive. But she has proven us wrong and is battling to survive and to eat. Thanks to God she has progressed really good. But she still has many complications in her way.”
    141013_Sinclair_Guatemala013.JPG
  • Rosario, 14, peers into the neonatal ICU of Hospital San Benito. “Our girls believe they were brought into this world to be a mother,” said Dr. Daniel Alvarez a pediatrician at the hospital. “When she is 12 she is used to raising her siblings. She doesn’t go to school, she is not literate. Some of these girls don’t even learn Spanish, they only use their mother language. At a certain age, the only escape in their mind is to get involved with a boy, and do the same thing… be a mother, be part of the cycle. That’s the cycle we are trying to break. We need to give more power to women to make good choices.”
    141013_Sinclair_Guatemala010.JPG
  • Teenage parents Daylin, 15, and Rubin, 17, observe their premature newborn at Hospital San Benito.
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  • Teenage parents Daylin, 15, and Rubin, 17, observe their premature newborn at Hospital San Benito.
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  • A premature baby born of young teenage parents Daylin, 15, and Rubin, 17, is cared for in the neonatal ICU of Hospital San Benito.
    141013_Sinclair_Guatemala014.JPG
  • A newborn child of a 14-year-old mother is treated in the ICU of Hospital San Benito. The baby boy was born premature and only weighed only 1.3 kilos. “He is still very small and not physically ready yet. His chest muscles get tired very quickly so we cannot remove the tube until he gains some weight,” said pediatrician Dr. Jessica Gonzales. “The mom being only 14 years... really they don't know what they are facing.”
    141013_Sinclair_Guatemala019.JPG
  • A newborn child of a 14-year-old mother is treated in the ICU of Hospital San Benito. The baby boy was born premature and only weighed only 1.3 kilos. “He is still very small and not physically ready yet. His chest muscles get tired very quickly so we cannot remove the tube until he gains some weight,” said pediatrician Dr. Jessica Gonzales. “The mom being only 14 years... really they don't know what they are facing.”
    141013_Sinclair_Guatemala017.JPG
  • A newborn child of a 14-year-old mother is treated in the ICU of Hospital San Benito. The baby boy was born premature and only weighed only 1.3 kilos. “He is still very small and not physically ready yet. His chest muscles get tired very quickly so we cannot remove the tube until he gains some weight,” said pediatrician Dr. Jessica Gonzales. “The mom being only 14 years... really they don't know what they are facing.”
    141013_Sinclair_Guatemala018.JPG
  • Rosario, 14, pumps her breasts for milk to give to her baby inside the neonatal ICU of Hospital San Benito. “Our girls believe they were brought into this world to be a mother,” said Dr. Daniel Alvarez a pediatrician at the hospital. “When she is 12 she is used to raising her siblings. She doesn’t go to school, she is not literate. Some of these girls don’t even learn Spanish, they only use their mother language. At a certain age, the only escape in their mind is to get involved with a boy, and do the same thing… be a mother, be part of the cycle. That’s the cycle we are trying to break. We need to give more power to women to make good choices.”
    141013_Sinclair_Guatemala021.JPG
  • Beverly, 16, and 6 months pregnant with her first child, is evaluated inside the San Benito Youth Clinic. She entered into a civil union at 15.
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  • Portrait of Carmen, 14, who is 3 months pregnant, “I was in school until 5th grade, when I got married.  I have been raising my chickens to kill them when the baby is born.”
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  • Carmen, 14, who is 3 months pregnant, sits with family members at her in laws house where she lives with 7 of his family members. “I was sad because I didn’t want to be pregnant,” she said. “I was just sad, I don’t know why.”   “I was in school until 5th grade, when I got married. I have been raising my chickens to kill them when the baby is born.”
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  • At the home of Carmen, 14, who is 3 months pregnant. Her husband is 23 and she lives at her in laws house with 7 of his family members. “I was sad because I didn’t want to be pregnant,” she said. “I was just sad, I don’t know why.”
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  • Sulmi, 14, who 9 months pregnant with a girl, at her home. “I studied in school but I left after 3rd grade. I met my husband when we were both working in another city. He’s always worked by making leather products and I worked selling what he made. We were married almost a year ago.”
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  • Portrait of new mother Saida, 14, with her one month old son. “Motherhood is hard. When they get sick, you don’t know why,” she said. “I don’t have experience and don’t know what to do with him, probably because of my age. I sleep very little. He doesn’t cry much but he wants to be held all the time. He starts to cry if I put him down. It’s hard.”
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  • Saidi, 16 and nine months pregnant, rests at her in laws home. “I was married at 15. My husband left for work in May, 4 months ago. I haven’t heard from him since,” she said. She gave birth the next day.
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  • Portrait of Soyla with her newborn baby. “I’m 15 and my baby is 2 weeks old. I went to school until the 5th grade. I was 14 when I was married. My husband is 21. It’s a girl. I want to give her everything. I want her to study.”
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  • Sandra, 14, was married three years prior and now has a five month old son, Alexander. Her husband, 26, met her in the neighborhood. “I don’t have parents, I grew up with my aunt and uncle after my father died. My father was killed and I don’t know how. My mother moved to another community. She abandoned me,” she said. “I would like to have a girl for my next baby. I would like her to study.”
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