Latina women have the nation’s highest fertility rate and are the fastest growing segment of single moms, says a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center. In the U.S., there are 84 births per 1,000 Latinas, compared with 63 births per non-Hispanic women, says the report. There were 73 births per U.S.-born Latinas, versus 96 births per 1,000 immigrant Latinas*. About half of Hispanic children were born to unmarried women, while over one-third (35 percent) of babies born to immigrant unmarried Latinas was about the same number of those born to unmarried non-Latinas. About one-quarter of children under the age of five (one in four) in the U.S. are Hispanic, and 15.1 percent of the country’s population is Hispanic, says the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

“The rising number of Latina mothers in the U.S. consists of a greater number of Hispanics currently living in the U.S.,” says Maribel Quiala, LCSW, the Southeast Coordinator for National Latina Health Network.

 

“The Latina woman who currently resides in the U.S. becomes acculturated, and is looking to be more independent; she attempts to fit in [with U.S.] customs, which are many times more liberal and far less religiously connected as they are in their homeland,” the Miami-based social worker explains. “There are fewer societal pressures in the U.S, and more acceptance [of single motherhood], unlike in their native countries where an unwed mother is not well-accepted from a societal and cultural perspective.”

 

The trend towards more single motherhood may be connected to a need to be free from dependence upon a man, Quiala maintains. “When a woman has a child to herself she does not have to share [the child] with a partner; she feels safer that way not having to dispute any time-sharing and co-parenting issues,” she contends. “There is an increase in divorce, separation, and custody battles in courts now and being a single mother alleviates all these burdens.”

 

Myelita Melton, owner of NC-based SpeakEasy Communications, Inc. and author of the SpeakEasy Spanish™ series, closely follows Hispanic trends, and agrees with Quiala. “I believe that the increase in single mothers among Latinas can be attributed to two things: acculturation, and marriage with native-born Americans who have grown up with divorce as a normal fact of life,” Melton tells demo dirt.

 

Acculturation is a major factor in single parenthood, Melton says. “The U.S. Hispanic population is in flux as we move from a mostly first generation to a second/third generation population,” she explains. “As any minority acculturates they begin to take on the values of the country in which they live, tending to move away from the more traditional, conservative values that their parents and grandparents cherished, which kept the family together.”

 

Dissolution of religious traditions and beliefs is another factor, Melton maintains. “Many U.S. Hispanics seem to be turning to Protestant faiths and away from the Catholic Church, which does not honor divorce.”

 

Miami-FL based Gaby Cora, MD, MBA, a psychiatrist with an expertise in the Latino culture, agrees that with acculturation, comes increasing secularism. “As Latinas get acculturated, they begin to follow new cultural norms, and they may not be as religious,” she says.

 

Cora contends that the high rate of Latina teen pregnancy may be the result of a lack of parent-child communication. “In the Latino culture, sexuality has been a taboo topic,” Cora says. “Younger kids don’t get to have open discussion with adults about how to avoid pregnancy. In a traditional Latino house, parents would not provide condoms and would not provide an education for the kids.”

 

“Because sex is taboo, it would be unusual for kids to approach their parents, so teens end up speaking with other teens because their parents are not addressing their needs, from an educational standpoint,” Cora explains.

 

Kids who want to talk about sex and its possible consequences, find that their parents may be the least helpful resource, Cora says. “If a kid wants to discuss sex or contraception, the parent in a traditional Latino household will most likely say, ‘You shouldn’t be having sex anyway,’ and they won’t discuss it. They expect them to wait until they get married to have sex,” she maintains.

 

With people getting married later and later in life, isn’t that a lofty expectation? “Right, it is,” Cora says, explaining that as people wait longer to get married nowadays, saving oneself until marriage becomes a less likely prospect.

 

Such conservative attitudes about sex are not confined to just the Latino culture, Cora adds. “White, or Caucasian teens do not have it easy, either,” she tells demo dirt. “I don’t think it is easy for many kids to talk to their parents about sex. For instance, Asian teens, Arab teens, they probably also find it difficult; most kids do. It is just that the Latino population is such a large minority, and combined with Catholicism, that makes it even more difficult.”

 

Especially alarming, the medical doctor argues, is the absence of condom use, heightening the risk of spreading sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV. “If teens are getting pregnant, that means they are not using condoms, and if they are not using condoms, then the rate of STDs is most likely higher as well.”

 

For instance, Cora says, a Latina teen who has become pregnant could also have acquired HIV, a devastating situation in terms of her family stability, job prospects and health. “Teen pregnancy contributes to the cycle of poverty, and if a girl also becomes HIV positive, then it could be hard for her to get jobs, have her family’s support, and she will have medical issues. The baby could come out to be HIV positive as well.” This makes it difficult, Cora adds, to combat the vicious circle of teen pregnancy and poverty.

 

However, for Latinas at the other end of the generational and economic spectrum, Cora says, unmarried motherhood may be a choice they embrace, as women gain more independence. “As women are turning 35 or 40, they may decide to have children, especially if they are in a higher socio-economic class, and they may decide to have the children on their own,” Cora explains.

 

Miami-based social worker Tania Paredes, LCSW, agrees with Cora that as Latinas become more accomplished, their options to have a family expand. “These results do not surprise me at all. Like all women, Hispanic women have different options,” she says. “They are now realizing that they don’t want to get married to have children. They ask themselves, ‘Why do I need to have a husband to have children?’”

 

“I don’t know if it is good or if it’s bad, but Hispanic women are starting to realize they don’t ‘need’ to be married. They have opportunities that they have not had before,” Paredes explains. ”Traditionally, Hispanic women were not encouraged to pursue a higher education—to go law school, or medical school—and now they want to focus on their careers and themselves, delaying childbirth. And, this stands true to for all women, not just Hispanics.”

 

Paredes adds that the political climate may influence the social atmosphere. “Politically, things have been very conservative, and maybe now we are shifting to the opposite extreme. After Clinton, things became very conservative, and now it seems to be very liberal. Every couple of years there seems to be a backlash,” Paredes says. “Now kids don’t want to be like their parents. The world is different.”

 

However, the social worker adds, “There is worth and value to having a two-parent home, whether it be a mother and father, a mom and grandma, or an aunt and uncle. People don’t put enough weight on the importance of a two-parent household.”

 

*The terms Latino and Hispanic are used interchangeably in this article.