S'pore
student gives birth at 9
By the time she finds out she is pregnant, it's too late to
abort.
Feb 28, 2007
AsiaOne
A nine-year-old Singaporean student, who did not realise she was
pregnant, gave birth to a boy after it became too late for her to
abort the baby.
Her horrified mother found out that her daughter was six-month
pregnant when she took her to a doctor for what she thought was a
urine infection.
By that time, it was too late for the girl to go for
abortion.
The shocking case was made public at a seminar on youth
relationships organised by Tamil cultural group Narpani Peravi and
Republic Polytechnic last Saturday and was reported in Tamil Murasu
on Sunday.
The primary three student, who comes from a well-to-do family and
lives in a private landed property, was made pregnant by her
boyfriend from the same school back in 2004. She gave her baby boy
up for adoption soon after giving birth. The child would be about
three years old now.
The girl was sent by her parents to a school in a nearby country,
where she is currently in Primary Six. The boy was sent to a
Reformative Training Centre soon after.
According to The New Paper, the girl met her boyfriend in school
and they had sex frequently in her home. All these time, her
parents never suspected anything as they were out and working most
of the time.
And when she started gaining weight and had morning sickness, she
didn't suspect that she was pregnant. Neither did her teachers and
friends, as the girl always tucked blouse out so no one in school
could tell if she was pregnant..
An early developer, she was about 1.3 metres tall and quite
big-size for a girl her age. She reached puberty early and started
menstruating when she was eight.
A gynaecologist and an urologist told The New Paper that it is very
unusual for a nine-year-old to give birth.
Gynaecologist Ann Tan, who has 15 years experience, said she has
never heard or seen any girl below 14 getting pregnant.
"This is very frightening," said Dr Tan, when told of the
case.
She said that girls reach puberty around 11 on average.
Consultant urologist Damian Png, who has more than 10 years of
experience, said boys usually reach puberty between 11 and
13.
Once a boy reaches puberty, he will be able to produce sperm, and
in so doing will be capable of impregnating a girl. He, however,
notes that the average age of puberty has gone down.
The youngest mother ever on record is Lina Medina from Peru. She
was only five when she gave birth to a boy in May 1939. It was
reported that she had her first period when she was only eight
months old.
Her son, named Gerardo, died from a bone marrow disease when he was
40 in 1979.
