A Colombian girl of just ten years of age has given birth to a baby girl after turning up at the hospital in terrible pain from the contractions, it was the first time she had seen a doctor about her pregnancy.
The girl was from the town of Manaure and a member of the Wayuu tribe who are based in La Guajira peninsula in the north of the country she was 39 weeks pregnant, most pregnancies only reach 38 weeks so the doctors decided to give her a caesarean section. Although the mother refused to breast feed her baby both her and the little girl who weighed just 5lbs are doing well in the neo-natal unit of an undisclosed hospital.
The police could arrest the father for under age sex but as the girl comes from this particular tribe the country’s constitution allows the Wayuu a certain amount of autonomy, it allows the tribe certain cultural heritages one of which is to give birth at a very young age.
The local community have kept very tight lipped about the identity of the father, speculation in a local paper said it could be a 15 year old boy another story says it could be a 30 year old man.
The director of the hospital criticised this case and said ‘at a time when little girls should be playing with dolls they are having to look after a baby its shocking, but the director of parenthood organisation instituto Colombiano Bienesta Familiar Alejandro Samplayo referred to the tribes culture and added ‘Since it’s a Wayuu girl we are trying to respect all of the rights since they have autonomy and their own jurisdiction.
The youngest ever mother to give birth in the world was a Peruvian girl called Linda Medina she was just two weeks away from her 5th birthday, it was huge news back then as this happened in 1933 and it was unheard of for someone so young to be able to give birth.
