In January of 1964, just 51 years ago, the second edition of Uncle Tony’s (Antonio Manibusan Palomo) Pacific Profile magazine was published. Part of this edition included the article, “Guam’s Productivity Is Tops in the World,” written by late Genevieve “Snookie” Perez Ploke Snow, the granddaughter of the late Atanasio Taitano Perez.
Genevieve provided some interesting statistics regarding Guam’s productivity of birth. Here were a few interesting stats she conveyed:
- In 1954 Guam’s birth rate was 56.3 per 1,000 populations, which at the time was highest in the world.
- In 1962, 2,592 babies were born at the Guam Memorial Hospital (GMH)
- During the month of August 1963, there was one baby born almost every three hours at GMH
- As of November 30, 1963 there were 2,227 births at GMH (was not expected to exceed the 1962 birth count)
- From the 1960 Census, of the 5,766 local women, 875 of them had 10 children or more
- In a 1963 Guam Recorder issue, it was reported that there was one set of quadruplets and several sets of triplets were born on Guam. Unfortunately, the quadruplets only survived for four months.
- Childbirth deaths were comparatively low and Guam was believed to be one of the best pre-natal coverages in the world.
The twins pictured in the bottom right frame are Julie and Judy Mendiola, and, Joe and Matthew Gabriel.
