Family planning
For the two populations within Guatemala, there are many large disparities between family planning actions. Family planning services are as scarce as health care services in the rural areas of Guatemala. Indigenous people in Guatemala are more likely to have little to no education and are often living in poverty. High poverty and illiteracy rates directly correlate with lower rates of contraceptive use. This lower rate is both a result of limited contraceptive knowledge and also the negative social stigma behind contraceptives. Guatemala's high fertility rate is a result of poor family planning initiatives, which result in young pregnancies, large families with many children, shorter birth intervals, and deficient growth within children. Similarly, breastfeeding plays a huge role in family planning, both as a nutrient and antibody source for infants, as well as a way to inhibit immediate fertility (because of the absence of menstruation) and allow for greater birth spacing.