Health

11 Year Old Gives Birth: Girl Gives Birth to Son in Northeast

by Amy Judd | February 5, 2010 at 08:21 am

6690 views | 62 Recommendations | 10 comments

A girl only 11 years old, has given birth to a son in a Northeast hospital, but the girl and her family are not being named for privacy reasons.

The girl's mother did make a statement to the press saying her daughter and the baby are doing fine and the baby is beautiful.

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.

Dr. Abdulla Al-Kahn, a doctor that specalizes in high-risk pregnancies noted the risks of this pregnancy and birth because the girl is not even a teenager, she is a pre-teen.

"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."

Other medical challenges include a pelvis that is not fully formed, a vagina that could be severely injured during childbirth and as she is so young, the girl could be at risk for pre-eclampsia, which is high blood pressure and protein in her urine and that could lead to multi-system organ failure and death.

The baby itself is at risk for issues with its growth, as the mother's body had not yet fully formed and was not really ready for pregnancy and childbirth.

Doctors are not even sure how to deal with a pregnant patient this young; the rules are completely different. There are also psychological issues involved as a girl so young is likely not ready to give birth to a baby.

"This is heart-wrenching because you have a kid whose mental capacities can’t possibly wrap themselves around what it means to be a mother here," agreed Dr. Keith Ablow

A girl as young as this is still dependent on her own family and now she has a baby who is dependent on her.

In 1939 in Peru, there was a case where a girl as young as six gave birth to a baby, but Dr. Al-Kahn said that in his opinion the topic of abortion would have been a serious one to consider in the case of this 11-year-old.

There have been other cases of girls giving birth at 11 years old; some of those babies were the product of rape cases or abuse, while others were fathered by boys almost as young.

Any details about the girl or her family are not known.

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Barbara McPherson

at 10:06 on February 5th, 2010

Someone needs to be held criminally responsible for this. To impregnate a child is a crime.

Sputnic

at 11:20 on February 5th, 2010

The father could be a child, where were her parents ?

Fabiola Crespo (not verified)

at 13:12 on February 5th, 2010

OMG! GET THE MAN AND THROU HIM IN JAIL FOR LIFE!!!! If he's a kid...WHERE WAS HER MOM...PLEASE!

Uwe Paschen

at 16:23 on February 5th, 2010

Sad and disturbing.

LeaveMyIDAlone

at 22:00 on February 5th, 2010

Wow, you think you've heard and seen it all, in what God forsaken town or city did this happen? Who did this and why IS HE STILL BREATHING???!!!!!

A. Tran

at 12:29 on February 6th, 2010

This is such a sad story, regardless of where this young girl is from. Thank you Amy, for the post albeit disturbing on so many levels.

Mechell (not verified)

at 19:45 on February 13th, 2010

Why does society insist on pointing the finger and attempt to pass blame when dealing with horrific news? Wake up people!!!! We are responsible for allowing such, foolish, extreme behavior to occur. For Pete's sake, look at what we allow the media to portray to our youth, it is impossible to turn on prime time television without a couple exploiting themselves, half nude right there in our living rooms. We need to take a stand and take responsibility for what we allow to be publicized on our televisions. If we stop for a moment, gather our family values and beliefs and refuse to allow the public view to have the ability to change our minds on those, we could make a positive contribution to our culture! We do have that kind of power if we just pull our heads out of our behinds!

hinata0132 (not verified)

at 08:46 on February 23rd, 2010

aww poor little girl =/ i hope she is getting the support she needs she is way to young for this to happen to her and i agree with wat other people have been saying ..where is her mom and who ever did this to her should be put in jail for a long time..to put an 11 year through this is just wrong!...

nopy (not verified)

at 00:30 on March 8th, 2010

How many 11yo and younger have boyfriends and girlfriends. How many of you know what pressures there are on young people in todays world of fast communication, pocket peer-group behaviour and so on. The cyberworld allows almost anyone to view anything. If we re-assess our own approach to children and children's needs we can be more realist about what they are doing and why they are doing it. Not all situations amount to abuse. The psychology of what it is to be a part of the human race is changing so rapidly and our children are changing with it. Those of you who say censourship is the answer or better parenting are kidding your-selves, censourship is not possible where the internet and other immediate communication is available. Our kids know everything the last generation was guessing at. We need to accept that 11 yo people feel that they have as much right as any other person to make decisions for themselves. They do not know that they do not have all the facts, they mostly do not care. Love and affection is what they seek just like any normal human being is seeking, they cannot define the consequences at such a young age, they just want to be a part of it, what ever it is. Being well informed parents and as open as possible with our kids, making sure they are as well informed too is the only defence we have to combat part information and partly formed disaterous ideas. I ask the readers of this column for their input about what we, as a world people, can do to help a the new generation of partly informed young people to make wise decisions, if in fact this was the case in this matter.