What's the youngest age that a person can get pregnant and give birth?




In the 1930s, the youngest mother ever recorded gave birth.

The tale of a pregnant 10-year-old girl who had to travel from Ohio to Indiana to get abortion treatment was covered by news sources shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court decided to overturn Roe v. Wade and abolish the constitutional right to an abortion. The tale brought attention to how the court's decision may effect young rape victims and sparked a debate about the dangers that pregnancy and delivery offer to young children.

To bring a pregnancy to term, a 10-year-old would face serious medical risks, some of which may be fatal. Tragically, though, it is possible for children much younger than 10 to get pregnant.

According to Dr. Melissa Simon, a professor and obstetrician-gynecologist at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, pregnancy is feasible from the beginning of ovulation, which is the time when the ovaries start producing mature eggs, known as ova. The release of an egg isn't often followed by any noticeable physical signs, and it's crucial to remember that "you might start ovulating before you start getting your first period," Simon said.

Menarche, or a person's first menstruation, is when ovulation most frequently starts, in accordance with the medical database StatPearls (opens in new tab). Menarche normally occurs between the ages of 10 and 16, according to the most recent data available, gathered in 2017. However, Simon noted that evidence suggests that the age of menarche is eroding, which suggests that the proportion of children who experience their first period before the age of 10 is probably rising.

The risks of being pregnant at age 9 or 10 are numerous, according to Simon. For instance, the amount of blood in a person's body grows by roughly 50% during pregnancy, and Simon noted that this additional fluid might place a great deal of strain on a child's heart. Important minerals like calcium may also get transferred to the developing fetus, leaving the child's growing body without them.

According to the World Health Organization(opens in new tab), moms between the ages of 10 and 19 are at a higher risk than mothers in their early 20s of experiencing preeclampsia, which can result in problems including seizures and coma (eclampsia) (WHO). According to the WHO, they also have a higher chance of developing systemic infections, infections of the uterine lining (puerperal endometritis), and maternal anemia, which is characterized by a sharp drop in the quantity of healthy, oxygen-carrying red blood cells in the body (opens in new tab).

According to Dr. Ashok Dyalchand, director of the Institute of Health Management Pachod, a public health organization that works with underserved communities in central India, "the complications, the morbidity, and the mortality are much higher in girls under 15 than girls 16 to 19, although 16 to 19 has a mortality twice as high as women 20 and above."

Children also have a higher chance of obstructed labor, a hazardous complication in which the baby becomes blocked in the birth canal during delivery, because of their tiny pelvises, according to Simon. According to The New York Times, obstructed labor puts pressure on the bladder and urethra and increases the risk of pelvic inflammatory disease, an infection of the reproductive systems. Additionally, difficult labor may tear the birth canal, resulting in perforations between the vagina and the bladder or rectum that can let urine and feces flow. According to Simon, these fistulas need extensive surgery to be repaired.

Given these concerns, it is often advised that pregnant children have Cesarean sections (C-sections) rather than vaginal births, according to Simon. According to University of Utah Health, the major operation has risks including significant bleeding, infection, injury to the bladder and bowel, and depending on the style of incision used, the procedure can increase the probability of needing a C-section in subsequent pregnancies (opens in new tab). Multiple C-sections increase the risk of "placenta accreta," a potentially fatal disorder when the placenta implants close to the incision from the previous C-section.

Children who get pregnant face not just these health dangers, but also substantial psychological stress, according to Simon. She remarked, "I can't even begin to imagine what type of emotional toll bearing a baby would have on a youngster.

Who gave birth at the youngest age ever recorded?

According to the fact-checking website Snopes(opens in new tab), which affirmed the veracity of this often cited case in 2004, Lina Medina was the youngest person to give birth in history when she underwent a Cesarean section at the age of 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days.

Living in Ticrapo, Peru, Medina's parents brought her to the Hospital of Pisco in April 1939 because they were worried about a huge tumor that was developing in her belly. Doctors examined Medina and discovered that she was actually seven months pregnant. The 5-year-old "couldn't offer specific replies" to queries about the incident, doctor-researcher Edmundo Escomel stated in the May 1939 issue of the French newspaper La Presse Médicale, which contributed to the inability to identify the child's rapist.

On May 14, 1939, Medina gave birth to a child weighing six pounds (2.7 kilograms) at a Lima hospital, according to the report. Due to Medina's tiny pelvis, delivery of the child was only possible by a C-section.

During the surgery, a tissue sample from one of Medina's ovaries was biopsied, and the physicians discovered that the tissues matched those of an adult woman. The girl was first said to have begun menstruation at age 3, but further investigations revealed that she really started at the age of eight months. Escomel proposed in a paper that appeared in December 1939 in La Presse Medicale that the child's unusually early onset of puberty was caused by a pituitary gland malfunction. The pituitary gland is a bean-shaped organ located at the base of the brain that regulates the body's sex hormone production.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Nuclear War Could Starve Billions, But One Country May Be Safer Than The Rest

Image
It all begins with a lone mushroom-shaped cloud that everyone had prayed would never appear again. Tit-for-tat attacks are sparked by retaliation, each of which aims to put an end to this most recent War of All Wars, until, around a week later, Earth starts to tremble under a veil of smoke and dust. Scenarios that map and estimate the destruction caused by a nuclear winter have existed since the Cold War dominated the evening news. Years later, we have a far better understanding of the more subtle consequences of airborne particles on our crops. And the numbers are still depressing. Six scenarios have been put up by a group of scientists from across the world using the most recent information on crop yields and fishery resources to approximate what food supplies may look like following a quickly intensifying nuclear battle between warring states. The death rate from a caloric scarcity problem alone might exterminate the majority of the world's population, leaving aside the immediat...
Read more

Plants Have Been Keeping a Secret From Us About How Thirsty They Actually Are

Image
Have you ever wondered why plants require water or how much water they actually need to grow? Plants require up to 300 grams of water to produce every gram of dry plant matter because they lose a lot of water when they absorb carbon dioxide from the environment. However, things don't have to be that way. In a recent research published in Nature Plants, we describe a natural trick that, in the long run, may be exploited to encourage plant growth while utilizing less water. a component that is necessary for plant development About 80% of the weight of plants is composed of water. Therefore, it stands to reason that plants would require around four grams of water for every gram of dry mass in order to hydrate themselves to their optimal levels. It might be the case, however they require much more water to flourish. A plant requires around 300 grams of water to create one gram of new dry mass. Why is there such a big discrepancy between how much water is needed for development and how ...
Read more

It Really Is in Your Head: Thinking Hard and Long Can Cause Brain Drain

Image
Wallace D. Wattles, an American author from the 19th century, reportedly remarked that "Thinking is the toughest and most demanding of all labor." On the surface, it would seem like a problematic comparison, but according to a recent research, thinking too hard or for too long can actually exhaust your brain, just like working out can. Hard physical work is undoubtedly exhausting, but a person's perspiration or trembling muscles reveal nothing about how hard they may be thinking. We just have to take people at their word when they claim they're psychologically worn out. As a result, researchers are still puzzled as to why sustained contemplation leads to cognitive weariness. It isn't really a feeling of being sleepy; rather, it is the impression that tasks are becoming more difficult to finish or to concentrate on. The brain's most prevalent excitatory neurotransmitter, according to some studies, may be to responsible for this lack of mental stamina. Despite b...
Read more