¿Queremos ser madres? Vivencias y significados del embarazo en la adolescencia en una comunidad nativa de la Amazonía peruana

Abstract

Adolescent pregnancy is a phenomenon that has been extensively thought about and discussed in Peru over the last decades. However, there are few anthropological investigations in indigenous contexts where the fertility rate of women from 15 to 19 years remains high in spite of the efforts made by government and non-governmental organizations for its reduction. This article utilizing a qualitative ethnographic approach explores and analyzes how pregnant adolescents of the native community of Nuevo Paraíso in the Peruvian Amazon conceive of pregnancy within their life projects. The results obtained demonstrate that adolescents generate specific patterns of interaction and experiences of sexuality in changing socioeconomic contexts and with higher population mobility levels. In this scenario, the experiences of pregnant adolescents are diverse and far from being all negative. On the one hand, family presence, gender notions, life cycles and relationship formalization foster a favorable scenario for a desired motherhood where pregnancy generates positive assessments such as social recognition and the acquisition of adulthood status. On the other hand, unwanted pregnancies occur in contexts where parents have been absent and couples have been unstable, leading to unfavorable situations and special vulnerability for adolescents.

Keywords

• adolescent pregnancy
• Shipibo-Konibo
• indigenous youth
• maternity
• Ucayali