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I was flabbergasted when I read in the news last month that a 9-year-old girl had given birth to a 6-pound baby boy in China.
I mean, HELLO, I had my menarche when I was 12. So in my brain, that implies that girls are not supposed to be fertile before that. Then how in the world do you even get pregnant, much less deliver a real baby when your uterus is the size of a peanut?
Apparently, I am so very wrong.
Five days ago, a 10-year-old Colombian girl arrived at the hospital crying in enormous pain, Which turned out to be her contractions and she subsequently gave birth to a healthy baby girl.
At a time when these girls were supposed to be playing with dolls and chasing after butterflies, they became what I am now - A mother.
It's just so wrong. Well, I'm always very elated and thrilled to hear about babies being born into this world, healthily and safely. But I guess not in cases like these.
Then I decided to dig up some research into this matter and uncovered some shocking facts that I never knew.
1) In Singapore, a 9-year-old girl gave birth after getting impregnated by a fellow student in her school. Her mother had thought she was suffering from an urinary tract infection, but upon taking her to the doctor, learned she was already six months pregnant. The baby was then placed for adoption. Yes, this took place in my homeland!
2) A 6-year-old girl gave birth in India in 1932 by by caesarean section. She had never menstruated, but was able to nurse her child for 9 months. Omg, that probably beats many breastfeeding mums out there.
3) In Nigeria, a girl gave birth at the age of 8. Turned out her daughter also gave birth at an really early age and she then became a grandmother when she was 15. And I thought my grandma was young.
4) In 1834, a 10-year-old girl gave birth in the United States to a baby girl. She allegedly developed breasts within weeks of birth and began menstruating at 12 months What?! So she had to wear a bra by age 1?
5) In India in 1933, an 8-year-old girl died during childbirth, along with her baby. The girl had a husband because her mother, a poor widow, said she had been forced to accept an offer of marriage for her daughter. What do 8-year-olds know about love, much less sex?
6) In 1979, a 10-year-old girl gave birth to twin girls in the United States. Ok, so now we not only have one, but a pair.
7) The second youngest girl to give birth ever was a 6-year-old girl in Soviet Union, back in 1934 after being impregnated by her grandfather. Doctors did not want to perform a ceasarean and so she gave birth naturally but the baby was stillborn. I hate to hear stories of stillborns, no matter what, it was still a life lost.
Now for the world record.
The youngest girl to give birth ever was a 5-year-old girl by the name of Lina Merdina in Peru.
Her parents, who assumed their daughter had a tumour, took her to a hospital, where she was determined to be seven months pregnant. Medina gave birth to a 6-pound son, named Gerardo after the doctor, by caesarean section on May 14, 1939, making her the youngest confirmed mother in medical history.
Gerardo was raised believing that Medina was his sister, but found out at the age of 10 that she was his mother. He grew up healthy but died in 1979 at the age of 40 of a bone marrow disease while Medina is still living today.
It has been said that Medina entered puberty as early as 8 months of age. In the photograph above, which was the only one taken during her pregnancy, you can clearly see her bulging tummy as well as the extent of her physiological development.
(Extracted from wikipedia.org. For the complete list of youngest birth mothers, go here)
Scary?
Unbelievable?
Shocking?
In many of these cases, the identity of the father was not known. Even if it was suspected sexual abuse by the girl's biological father like in Medina's case, he was later released because of lack of evidence. In other cases, culprits could be the grandfather, uncle, cousins, neighbour, domestic servant and fellow student.
How is this going to affect the girl's life? To be a mom when you are after all a baby?
I just can't imagine. It might be better to tell her that the child is her little sister/brother, but the fact is everything will come to light one day and then what? Being a mom changes one's life forever, doesn't it? Being a mom comes with so many responsibilities and commitment, and it shouldn't be a burden on the shoulders of a less than 20kg tiny girl who has no means to even fend for herself.
I shudder to think that so many cases happen constantly in the world around us.
It scares me a little to know that small girls today can become big girls tomorrow.
Well, guess it's better to learn about all this instead of being stuck in the mindset that girls only grow up when they are 12. It makes me wiser, I'd like to think.
For those of you with lovely little girls at home like me, it sounds crude but well, let's protect this bubble of theirs called virginity, shall we?