Peru

Reproductive Health

The country has the second highest maternal mortality ratio in South America. Leading causes of maternal mortality include hemorrhage (45.7 percent), toxemia (26.5 percent), and abortion-related complications (7.3 percent). In 2004, the World Health Organization estimated that 410 out of every 100,000 Peruvian women died in labor.

The government has designed policies to address maternal and infant health care and reproductive health, yet many of these initiatives faced serious internal problems. The National Program of Reproductive Health and Family Planning 1996–2000 made sterilization and reproductive health education free to all Peruvians. However, within two [Page 979]years of the program's implementation, 243 cases of forced sterilization of poor indigenous and peasant women had been documented. In 2001, the National Family Planning Program underwent reorganization, and family planning and reproductive health lost priority and funding. Between 2001 and 2003, two individuals who openly denounced reproductive rights as a valid concept were given consecutive terms as Ministers of Health. During this period, the distribution of emergency contraception in public health clinics was prohibited.

Rural Peruvians often wear distinctive clothing, usually made from homemade textiles and traditional patterns.

Famous mothers include Mama Ocllo, who according to Inca mythology emerged from Lake Titicaca with Manco Capac, and with him founded the Inca Empire; Micaela Bastidas (1745–81), who led rebel forces against the Spanish takeover of Peru during the Tupac Amaru Rebellion and was executed by the Spaniards; Maria Parado de Bellido (1761–1822), a heroine and mother of seven who contributed to Peruvian independence efforts and was captured, tortured, and executed without giving up the names of her collaborators; and Lina Medina (1934-), the world's youngest mother who suffered from a rare form of precocious puberty and at the age of 5 gave birth to a boy.

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