Abstract : Abortion is a traumatic experience which is often worsened by poor medical care. Abortion is significant on the personal, family, and community level because it engenders a condition of grief in the woman and it may also be the cause of grave complications or death. Of the estimated 4,200,000 pregnancies each year in Mexico, 60% terminate in live births and the rest, some 1,700,000 pregnancies, in abortion. Half are estimated to be spontaneous and the rest induced. One-third of women experiencing abortion are estimated to require hospitalization. A recent study of abortion determinants in Mexico indicated that economic problems were a factor in 76%, large family size in 70%, and low educational level in 68%. Physicians performed the procedure in one-third of cases, midwives in 20%, and the woman herself in 19%. Among serious consequences of abortion are genital bleeding, infection, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and physical lesions of the genital organs. Abortion is the third principal cause of maternal mortality in Mexico. Estimates of the monetary cost of abortion reveal the true dimensions of the problem. The average hospital stay for all clinical forms of abortion is 1.8 days. Nearly 1500 hospital beds per day are required for treatment of abortion complications. The average duration of incapacity at work is ten days. Work days lost each year because of abortion amount to approximately 5.5 million. It is believed that the abortion rate and its associated morbidity and mortality would decrease with greater availability of family planning methods and education in their use.
Notes : Español/espagnol/Spanish, nbsp;Abstract : Popline (http://db.jhuccp.org/popinform/basic.html) - PIP 103316