The youngest mother in human history has died. The youngest mother in the world: how was the fate of Lina Medina, who gave birth at the age of five
Died in November 2015 at the age of 82 Lina Medina- an ordinary Peruvian woman, whom no one would know about if it were not for the story that happened to her many years ago. May 14, 1939 Lina became a mother. At that time she was 5 years and 7 months old. The girl gave birth to a healthy baby weighing 2700! The Incredible Case Was Officially Documented and Lina Medina Recognized the youngest mother in the history of medicine.
Lina Medina was born in 1933 in a poor Peruvian village. When the girl was 5 years old, her parents, worried about the growing abdominal "tumor", took her to the doctor. Neither the parents nor the doctors could believe the results of the examination: it turned out that the girl was in her seventh month of pregnancy.
Lina's attending physician, Gerardo Losada, took her to the capital, Lima, for an additional examination. They confirmed the pregnancy. May 14, 1939 Lina Medina gave birth to a boy. Since the natural method of childbirth was impossible due to the small size of the pelvis of the woman in labor, a caesarean section was used. The boy was named after the attending physician - Gerardo.
An account of this incredible case was published in the medical journal La Presse Medicale. It turned out that due to a hormonal failure, the girl's puberty occurred at a very early age: her menstruation began at 8 months, at the age of 4, the mammary glands began to develop, by the age of 5, the pelvis began to expand.
Lina's son was raised as her brother until the age of 10, then the family secret was revealed to him. Gerardo lived to the age of 40 and died of a bone marrow disease in 1979. Lina Medina married and became a mother for the second time in 1972, at the age of 39.
Lina never gave interviews and generally avoided talking to journalists. The question that haunted many - who was the father of the child - remained unanswered. She herself never returned to the subject. In 1939, her father was detained on suspicion of rape, but he was soon released because his guilt was not proven. According to one version, the girl became a victim of a ritual ceremony or orgies, which often ended with mass festivities among the Peruvian Indians in the villages. But these are just guesses - Lina took this secret with her to the grave.
Lina Medina is the youngest mother in the history of medicine, but in other countries there have been similar precedents with girls a little older than Lina. In 1934, a 6-year-old Kharkov woman carried a child who died during childbirth. In 1957, at the age of 9, Peruvian Ilda Trujillo gave birth to a girl weighing 2700. In 2004-2007. Girls from Singapore, Rwanda, Brazil, Peru and Honduras became 9-year-old mothers. In all cases, the girls were victims of rape, often by their relatives.
These girls were deprived of their childhood, they were not yet ready to realize the happiness of motherhood - one of the most generous gifts of nature and God.
At the five-year-old Peruvian Lina Medina, her stomach suddenly began to grow, her parents were afraid for her daughter's health and took her to the hospital.
Doctors suggested that such a rapid growth of the abdomen was caused by a tumor, but after examination it turned out that the girl was pregnant. She felt fine, and the doctors decided not to terminate the pregnancy, but to observe. Dr. Gerardo Lozado took her to a hospital in Lima, the capital of Peru. Some time later, she underwent a caesarean section, and May 14, 1939 was the birthday of a healthy baby weighing 2.7 kg. The boy was named Gerardo in honor of the doctor who helped him to be born.
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Parents refused to participate in experiments and studies, as well as communication with the press, so as not to turn the lives of children into a series of endless interviews. Until Gerard was 10 years old, he was not told the truth about his birth, he considered his grandparents as his parents, and his mother as his sister.
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As an adult, the girl got married and was able to give birth to another child. The eldest son Gerard grew up healthy and strong (in the photo he is on the left), but his life was cut short at an early age - he died of brain cancer at the age of forty.
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Lina Medina lived to the age of 82, and died in 2015 from a stroke. To this day, she remains the youngest mother in history to deliver a baby at 5 years, 7 months and 17 days. It was not possible to find out who became the father of the child. At first, Lina's father was suspected, but it was not possible to prove it. There were also versions that the girl was raped when she went to the river to wash clothes, or during an orgy, which in those days often ended the mass festivals of the Peruvian Indians.
In Peru, at the age of 83, Lina Medina, who was the youngest mother in the history of mankind, died.
The whole world learned about Medina in 1939. It was then that she gave birth to a child at the age of five. This event still shocks doctors. The child that the girl gave birth to was completely healthy and was no different from ordinary people.
As it became known, the girl's first menstruation appeared as early as 8 months, and by the age of five she had already fully formed breasts. Medina outlived her first child by almost 40 years.
Lina was brought to the hospital by her parents for an enlarged abdomen at the age of five. A tumor was initially diagnosed, but doctors soon discovered that the girl was seven months pregnant. Dr. Gerardo Lozada took her to the capital of Peru for additional examinations to confirm the pregnancy. A month and a half later, on May 14, 1939, Lina gave birth to a boy by caesarean section, necessary because of her undeveloped pelvis. The operation was performed by Dr. Losada and Dr. Busolleu, anesthesia was administered by Dr. Colareta.
A report published in La Presse Médicale stated that the girl's menarche occurred at 2 years and 8 months, by the age of four she had sufficiently developed mammary glands, and at 5 years there was already a characteristic expansion of the pelvic bones.
Lina's son weighed 2.7 kg at birth and was named after Gerardo, the doctor who delivered the baby. The boy was brought up, considering Lina his sister, until he was ten years old, until he found out the truth. He grew up healthy, but died at the age of forty in 1979 from a bone marrow disease.
It was not documented how Lina Medina became pregnant. She never named either the father of the child or the circumstances of conception. Her father was arrested on suspicion of rape, but released due to lack of evidence. One article pointed out that among the Peruvian Indians (especially in villages like the one where Lina grew up) mass festivities are still widespread, usually ending in orgies; it was assumed that the girl could somehow be involved in the "celebration" and after that became pregnant, but since Lina did not give any comments on this matter, this remains only an assumption. From an interview offered by Reuters in 2002, the youngest mother in history refused.
Lina married Raul Jurado, with whom she had a second son in 1972.
There are two published photographs documenting this unusual case in the history of medicine. One photograph of very poor quality was taken in early April 1939, when Medina was 7.5 months pregnant. The photograph is valuable as a confirmation of Lina's pregnancy and the degree of her physiological development. The second photo, clearer and better quality, was taken a year later in Lima, when Gerardo was eleven months old.
When Lina Medina's stomach began to grow, the doctors explained it with a large tumor - after all, she was only 5 years old.
But after tests, it was found that the girl was seven months pregnant, and a few weeks later Lina gave birth to a healthy boy.
After 80 years, Lina remains the youngest mother in history.
She was born into a poor family in the small village of Andes, Peru in 1933.
When Lina turned 5, she began to complain of pain and her mother noticed her growing belly.
A few weeks later, on May 14, 1939, she gave birth to a boy by caesarean section, because the pelvis was too small for a natural birth.
The child was born healthy and weighed 2.7 kg, he was named Gerardo in honor of the obstetrician who delivered the baby.
The doctor determined that Lina's sexual organs had reached maturity due to precocious puberty.
Lina's father was accused of committing incest and arrested, but due to lack of evidence, he had to be released, so the identity of the second parent is still considered unidentified.
Until the age of 10, until the truth was revealed to him, Gerardo called Lina his sister. He had no health problems and died in 1979 at the age of 40 due to bone disease.
Lina, who never commented on her pregnancy, is still alive, she is 85 years old. In the 70s she got married and gave birth to her second son.
Her case has sometimes been accused of forgery, but doctors claim they have x-rays and biopsy results proving that Lina was indeed pregnant.
The Time newspaper wrote about such cases:
“Baby rape is not new here or anywhere else. Of course, this does not always lead to pregnancy at such a young age. For example, obstetrician Rolando Colareta, in his 30-year practice, observed four such girls under the age of eleven; the youngest of them was Lina Medina, aged 5 years and eight months, in whose birth he assisted; in second place is Hilda Trujilo at the age of 8” (TIME, May 29, 1939)