A 10-year-old Colombian girl gave birth to a healthy baby girl, making her one of the youngest mothers ever.
The unnamed girl from Manaure, a town in the Colombian Department of La
Guajira, arrived at the hospital in tears and "enormous pain" from the
contractions, according to Univision's Primer Impacto. She reportedly delivered her daughter, who weighed 5 pounds, by cesarean section.
Experts say a C-section delivery for such a young mother is not unusual.
"The baby's head needs to come through a bony outlet. But in a young
girl, the pelvis may not be ready or big enough to deliver a baby," said
Dr. Kimberly Gecsi, an OB/GYN at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland.
Extremely young mothers also have a higher risk of pregnancy-induced
high blood pressure known as preeclampsia, and their babies are at risk
for fetal growth restriction, according to Dr. Frederick Gonzalez, a
clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at NYU Langone Medical
Center.
"These girls are not ready to be pregnant. Their bodies are not mature,"
said Gonzalez. "They may be able to get pregnant, but being able to
have a baby is a whole other situation."
The new mom is a member of the Wayuu people, an indigenous tribe in
northern Colombia. The age of the father is unknown, but police can't
press charges because the tribe has its own jurisdiction, according to
local reports.
"We've already seen several cases [of pregnancy] in girls of the Wayuu
ethnicity," Efraín Pacheco Casadiego, director of the hospital where the
girl gave birth, told RCN La Radio noticias. "When in fact [the girls] should be playing with dolls, they are having to care for a baby. This is shocking."
Pregnancy can occur as soon as a girl starts ovulating, which is happening at ever younger ages.
"The average age girls in the country start menstruating is about 12 and
a half, but that age keeps dropping," said Gecsi, adding that the age
is even lower among Hispanic girls. "But only about 13 percent of
Hispanic girls menstruate younger than 11. And for them to have a sexual
experience would be very unusual."
Because ovulation precedes menstruation, girls can get pregnant before ever having a period.
"Typically, menstruation is the last thing that happens in puberty,"
said Gesci, adding that girls typically go through a growth spurt and
develop breasts and pubic hair before menstruating. "If you notice those
things, you could be about to menstruate and you could get pregnant."
- Via Yahoo
I hope the father isn't some 40 + year old freak, he better at least be around the age of the girl. He needs to be identified ASAP, and maybe *this word has exceeded its tolerance limit -_-* lynched also.
