Lina Medina’s parents were worried. Lina, one of nine children in this poor family of the Peruvian Andes, had a seemingly inexplicable abdominal growth — which was growing larger by the week.
Fearing she had cancer, Lina’s parents brought her to the doctor. The Peruvian girl was cancer-free; she was, however, seven months pregnant.
Lina Medina, 5 years 7 months, Peru. 1939 Lina Medina, from Peru, gave birth by C-section at the age of 5. The infant was a 5.8 lb., 18.7 in. Medina’s parents thought their daughter had a tumor and took her to a hospital where doctors found out that she was 7 months pregnant. Medina’s father was arrested on suspicion of sexual abuse. Here is the story about how a sexually abused Peruvian girl Lina Medina became the world’s youngest mother at age five. By Andrei Tapalaga. Lina Marcela Medina is confirmed to be the youngest mother in history, giving birth at the young age of 5 years and 7 months old. Lina was born on September 23, 1933, in Peru. It was her rare hormonal conditions that allowed Lina Medina to become, at 5 years, 7 months and 21 days, the youngest mother ever documented by medicine in all of humankind’s history. Despite all the risks, she gave birth by cesarean section on May 14, 1939 – no less than Mother’s Day in Peru. The Peruvian girl Lina Marcela Medina de Jurado, shortened in Lina Medina, was born on 23rd September of 1933, who became the youngest confirmed mother in history, giving birth at age five years, seven months, and twenty-one days. Based on the medical assessments of her pregnancy, she was less than five years old when she became pregnant. Lina Medina seems to have gotten good medical care, especially for the time and place in which she lived, and gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Delivery was by cesarean section because, despite Medina’s prematurely widened hips, her slim frame was still not adequate in terms of passing a full-sized child through the birth canal.
Six weeks later, on May 14, 1939, Lina gave birth via Cesarean section to baby Gerardo, who weighed six pounds at birth.
Gerardo Medina
Lina Medina
Lina Medina Baby
Lina was five years, seven months, and 21 days old at the time of Gerardo’s birth — the youngest mother on record.
Baby Asian Lina Medina Pregnant Massage
In performing the c-section, doctors noted that Lina had gone through puberty at a very early age, called “precocious puberty.” Researchers further pieced together shocking details of Lina’s ascent into “adulthood”: she had developed mature breasts by age four and had her first menstrual cycle at two and a half (with some reports suggesting that her first period came at the age of eight months).
She’s never revealed the identity of Gerardo’s father — and, in fact, may not know who it is; the doctor who delivered Gerardo noted that Lina’s mastery of the details of her pregnancy was fleeting, due in part to her young age. But the pregnancy was definitely real.
One photograph of the pregnant five year old exists (available here) and scores of evidence — x-rays, doctors notes, biopsies, etc. — exist proving the pregnancy and delivery to be true.
After she gave birth, she appeared in a photo with her doctor and son, seen above.
Lina and her parents ended up raising Gerardo. Until he was ten Gerardo believed she was his older sister, but around that age he was informed that Lina was, in fact, her mother. For her part, Lina is otherwise healthy and still alive today, albeit in incredibly poor conditions. She married later in life and, in 1972, had another son. Gerardo died in 1979, at age 40, of a bone marrow disease unrelated to his mother’s age at his birth.
(via Now I Know)