http://action.afa.net/Blogs/BlogPost.aspx?id=2147491710An 11-year-old girl in the Northeast has given birth to a healthy baby boy, according to a statement put out by the girl's mother. "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 their privacy. See FOX News.
Amazingly enough, this girl is not even the youngest mother to give birth this week. On Wednesday, it was reported that a 9-year-old Chinese girl gave birth on January 27. Mother and child are both doing well, but her parents have lodged a complaint to the police - under Chinese law, sexual intercouse with a child under the age of 14 is considered statutory rape. See the Telegraph.
The Telegraph goes on to report that "China has launched a nationwide campaign to preserve the innocence of its children, banning any sexual content from the internet. Secondary school pupils are often suspended or expelled if they are suspected of having sexual relationships." It is not clear what happened in the case with the 11-year-old - no details have been given.
Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, who is a leading high-risk obstetrician, commented on the 11-year-old who gave birth, and pointed out that girls' bodies are not built to carry a baby in a pregnancy.
"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."
"The textbooks don’t even tell you how to deal with a 10-year-old; it’s completely different even though we understand the basics," Al-Khan said.
Dr. Keith Ablow, a psychiatrist and FOX News contributor, said: "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."
The sad fact is that these are cases of "tweens" who have given birth to babies. They are barely out of their own girlhood, and are not yet teenagers; probably too old to play with toys, but way too young for boys. It would be difficult enough to manage having a baby at age 16, let alone being 9 or 11-years-old and dealing with diapers, doctor visits, and all the other myriad issues that come from having a baby. The girls are obviously still dependent on their own families for support, and now they have a baby dependent on them for that same support. I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read these two stories, mostly because I have a 10-year-old daughter myself and can't even imagine being in this position.
Topic: 11-Year-Old Gives Birth to Baby (Read 522 times)