The World’s Youngest Mothers

Although not uncommon, we’ll never get used to stories of very young women who get pregnant.

“I’m so ready to hear about my 16-year-old neighbour and her newborn baby,” said no one ever. It’s unsettling to discover that the youngest person in the world became a mother when she was 13 years away from her 18th birthday. She was too young to even remember, let alone understand, what happened to her.

She is not the only one, and the list of girls who became mothers under the age of ten is long and disturbing.

The underlying fact that the only chance for a female to get pregnant is to engage in sexual intercourse becomes even more intolerable to discuss especially if it’s children who are involved. One can’t help but think how a young body is able to survive the pain during childbirth. The human body can handle only 45 del (unit) of pain, while a woman goes through 57 del when she gives birth. Can a child’s body even bear this?

The youngest mothers in the world..that we know of.

10. Samantha Goodman from Zimbabwe (10 years old)

She was 10 years old when she gave birth to a 6 lb. girl. Unlike all the other girls we’ve included in this list, Samantha’s pregnancy was as a result of an “experiment” that she did with her playmate. Interviewed six years later, she said she found her first sexual experience “funny.” The dad of her baby, Courtney, was her 12-year-old boyfriend.

9. Laura Marina Villanueva from Peru (10 years old)

Laura gave birth on January 24, 2012, to a healthy baby boy she named Justin — after Justin Bieber.  Laura was only 10 years old. The father of her child was her older sister’s partner. He later went into hiding when police sought him for rape, but he continued to threaten to kill Laura and her sister if the police got to him.

8. Maria Eulaalia Allende from Argentina (9 years old)

Maria gave birth to a 7-lb. baby when she was nine years old. The father was her 20-year-old cousin.

7. Mum-Zi from Nigeria (8 years old)

She gave birth in December of 1844 when she was eight years old. Interestingly, Mum-Zi’s mother gave birth to her when she was also eight. Even more, interestingly, Mum-Zi’s mum was only 17 when Mum-Zi gave birth, making her the youngest grandmother in recorded history.

6. Zulma Guadalupe Morales (8 years old)

Zulma was raped by her uncle and got pregnant. She gave birth on January 12, 1993 when she was eight years old. Her baby was a healthy 7-lb boy.

5. Hilda Trujillo (8 years old)

This young mum named her 7-lb healthy baby Maria del Rosario. She was eight years old when she gave birth on December 2, 1957. She was raped by her 22-year-old cousin.

4. Griseldina Acuna from Columbia (8 years old)

Griseldina gave birth when she was eight years and two months old. She gave birth to a 5-lb boy on September 13, 1936. She began menstruating at the age of three! Her rapist was a 17-year-old family friend.

3. Anya (8 years old)

This young Russian girl gave birth at the age of eight years and seven months old in 2000. She was raped by her next-door neighbour who was only 13 years old.

2. Yelizaveta Gryschenko (6 years old)

She was six years old when she gave birth. Sadly, her baby did not survive. Liza, as she was fondly called, had fully developed breasts and pubic hair when she was only five. She was raped by her 69-year old grandfather who continued to live with Yelizaveta’s family when they moved away to another place to avoid controversy.

1. Lina Medina from Peru (5 years old)

Lina was five years old. She gave birth on May 14, 1939, to a healthy baby boy whom she named Gerardo.

There were contradictory reports as to when she began menstruating, but her mother said that Lina was eight months old when they witnessed her first menstruation. She had fully developed breasts when she was four. Lina’s father was arrested for suspected rape and incest but later on, released for lack of evidence. She, later on, got married and refused to talk about her unusual pregnancy. Gerardo died when he was 40 years old due to a bone marrow disease.

How is it even possible for children to get pregnant?

The culprit is a medical condition called Precocious Puberty, which happens when bones and muscles grow rapidly, pushing the body to develop fully and even giving it the ability to reproduce..

But sadder than the existence of this condition is the fact that almost all of the children whose pregnancies were recorded were raped, abused and were mostly victims of incest.