Motherhood in poverty

ALICIA OIBERMAN; SANTOS, SOLEDAD; PAOLINI, CYNTHIA

Family as a context for development: continuity and change in Latin America Perspectives on Psycho Series, APA Books

American Psychological Association

Lugar: Washington DC; Año: 2018;

Motherhood is a phenomenon that transcends biological aspects, acquiring a psychological, social and cultural value.In Argentina there are 6,808,769 women and 6,489,373 men from 14 to 49 years of age. The 54% of these women and 47.7% of these men are ?heads of household? (they are the only economic household support) and within this group 2,988,314 women and 2,357,709 men live in homes where there is at least one son or daughter.According to data obtained from the 2016 census, 32% of Argentineans are poor and 6.3% are indigent.In Argentina, the average age in which women usually have their first child is at 23 years old. However, socioeconomic status is a very important factor that influence on the age at which a woman becomes a mother. Thus, there are two clearly differentiated groups regarding the maternity process: On the one hand, a group of women that begins to have children as from the age of 30, belonging to a medium and high socioeconomic status; and on the other hand, another group that initiates motherhood around the age of 20.Therefore, when a woman lives in an extremely low socioeconomic condition (indigence) she becomes a mother, on average, 3 or 4 years earlier than those women who are in better socio-economic conditions (not poor) (Lupica, 2011). Furthermore, the level of education also influences the age at which women have children. They delay their motherhood by one year as they move from a lower educational level to an immediately higher one, except when they move from the ?incomplete university level? to the ?full university level?. In that case they delay their motherhood practically 3 years. Thus, women with more years of formal education (full university) become mothers, on average, 7 years later than those who have less years of formal education: 27.2 years and 20.6 years respectively (Lupica, 2011). Regarding childhood, it is pointed out that half of population in poverty are children aged between 0 and 14 years old. The amount of people who live in poverty reaches almost thirteen million citizens, of whom six million are children.It should be noted that 14.7% of women (438,522) and 3.1% of men (72,071) are single-parents: separated, divorced, widowed or single, who live with their children and they are the only economic household support. Single parenthood could lead to a situation of disadvantage and inequality for many women and men in our country (Lupica, 2011). The aim of this article is to describe a perinatal psychological device that allows the detection of psycho-social risk situations at the time of birth; and to present the results of its application in a Hospital from the city of Florencio Varela - Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina ? that provides health care and assistance to families in low socio-economic situation.