Abstract

FREYERMUTH ENCISO, Graciela; OCHOA TORRES, María del Pilar  and  MUNOS HERNANDEZ, José Alberto. The Subsystem of Information on Births. Case study of an indigenous region of Chiapas, Mexico. Estud. demogr. urbanos [online]. 2017, vol.32, n.3, pp.451-486. ISSN 2448-6515.  https://doi.org/10.24201/edu.v32i3.1627.

The Birth Information Subsystem (Sinac) of the Mexican Ministry of Health has become an essential tool for the analysis of maternal and child health. This subsystem is generated through birth certificates (BC), and in 2011 it was proposed as an input to estimate the maternal mortality rate in Mexico. However, to date, very few studies have provided evidence of the reliability of Sinac data. The purpose of this research was therefore to identify the consistency of the information on births in Chiapas, based on an analysis of the database, and through a case study. The analysis made it possible to describe and analyze the obstacles in the timely issue of BCs in the Altos Tsotsil-Tseltal region of Chiapas, where the majority of women continue to give birth at home. The results show the need to modify BCs to ensure that they are correctly filled in and issued in a timely manner. They also show the difficulty that Chiapas women experience in completing the procedure to obtain their children’s BC.

Keywords : Birth Subsystem Information; birth certificate; civil registration; indigenous peoples; inconsistencies; Chiapas; maternal mortality ratio; underreporting; birth.