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.
Six weeks later, on May 14, 1939, Lina gave birth via Cesarean section to baby Gerardo, who weighed six pounds at birth.
Lina was five years, seven months, and 21 days old at the time of Gerardo’s birth — the youngest mother on record.
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.
-Now I Know
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