An 11-year-old girl in the Northeast recently gave birth to a baby boy, according to the girl’s family."My daughter and baby are fine, and the baby is absolutely beautiful," stated the girl’s mother. The girl and her family are not being named in order to protect the girl’s privacy.
According to Dr. Manny Alvarez, managing health editor of FoxNews.com, the girl’s age places her in significant dangers. "A very comprehensive approach to her care needs to be instituted early in her pregnancy," Alvarez said.
But of course, this case is not about a teenager, Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, a leading high-risk obstetrician noted; it’s about a pre-teen, or child, who’s body is not built to carry a child yet.
"Her body is clearly not defined for pregnancy with its short stature," Al-Khan said. "Her chest is not extensively developed for breast tissue, her bones aren’t quite fused, and once you expose a child this young to high amounts of progesterone and especially estrogen, there is controversy that it could halt her growth."
Ablow pointed out that the girl is dependent on her own family to take care of her, yet now she has a child who is dependent on her.
The youngest documented case of a child pregnancy was in 1939 in Lima, Peru, Al-Khan said. Lina Medina was 6-years-old when she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby.
1 comment:
read the last paragraph again. we need a follow up story to that!!
Post a Comment