How does a 10 year old become pregnant?

unsung

Obvious answers aside. Do the parents just let their children run amuck? Is parental responsibility dead?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584936,00.html

Pepe Silvia

wtf??? who is having sex with a 10 year old??

oddly enough the article says she is not the youngest

The youngest documented case of a child pregnancy was in 1939 in Lima, Peru, Al-Khan said. Lina Medina was six years old when she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby.

that is just sick

pandora

Pepe Silvia wrote:

wtf??? who is having sex with a 10 year old??

oddly enough the article says she is not the youngest

The youngest documented case of a child pregnancy was in 1939 in Lima, Peru, Al-Khan said. Lina Medina was six years old when she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby.

that is just sick

who is having sex with a 10 yr old? a 12 year old
these kids grow up early these days
sex sex sex everywhere

chris32482

Perhaps it was not consentual on her behalf? I would imagine one would have an abortion if that were the case though.

youngster

That's just all kinds of wrong.

dimitrispearljam

i hope he is in JAIL

Jeanwah

Pepe Silvia wrote:

wtf??? who is having sex with a 10 year old??

oddly enough the article says she is not the youngest

The youngest documented case of a child pregnancy was in 1939 in Lima, Peru, Al-Khan said. Lina Medina was six years old when she became pregnant and gave birth to a baby.

that is just sick

To get pregnant, you have to have begun menstruating. I can believe a 10 year old as girls are starting their periods earlier and earlier, but I have a hard time believing that a 6 year could. Not to mention, that's just plain sick.

_

The article left so many unanswered questions: Who is the "father"? What are the circumstances? What was the thought process when they decided she would continue the pregnancy instead of having an abortion? Who made that decision? How did the birth go? Who will care for the baby?

These kinds of stories are tragic all around. :(

I've dealt with a few patients who were 12 and 13. I'll never forget one in particular, 12 years old. Her adult sister, who called to make her appointment, said she had "consentual" sex with the 13- or 14-year-old neighbor and it was the only time she had ever had sex. When I spoke to the girl alone I said, "We need to know how many different people you've really had sex with." She said, "It was either 3 or 5, but I'm not sure if 2 of them went in." She also said, "It itches on my, uh.... on my, uh.... on my hoochie." Broke my heart.

haffajappa

scb wrote:

The article left so many unanswered questions: Who is the "father"? What are the circumstances? What was the thought process when they decided she would continue the pregnancy instead of having an abortion? Who made that decision? How did the birth go? Who will care for the baby?

These kinds of stories are tragic all around. :(

I've dealt with a few patients who were 12 and 13. I'll never forget one in particular, 12 years old. Her adult sister, who called to make her appointment, said she had "consentual" sex with the 13- or 14-year-old neighbor and it was the only time she had ever had sex. When I spoke to the girl alone I said, "We need to know how many different people you've really had sex with." She said, "It was either 3 or 5, but I'm not sure if 2 of them went in." She also said, "It itches on my, uh.... on my, uh.... on my hoochie." Broke my heart.

I agree, a lot of unanswered questions here.
It really is sad too, because even at that age its hard to get a child to tell the truth, because they still feel a lot of loyalty to their parents - and if their parents (or another adult) tell them to say something, they usually don't risk breaking that loyalty.

Franny

WTF?? At 10yo sex was not even on the agenda!!! And yes, what were her parents doing whilst she was ...well, having sex. So wrong...lost for words really.

FenwayFaithful

Just awful...sad really.

_

Black-Corduroy wrote:

WTF?? At 10yo sex was not even on the agenda!!! And yes, what were her parents doing whilst she was ...well, having sex. So wrong...lost for words really.

For all we know, it could be her dad who got her pregnant. (I'd love to see some stats on the increased likelihood of that kind of thing in such young girls.)

Heatherj43

I am surprised a 10 year old CAN get pregnant. Maybe kids are just maturing too fast, not just metally, but physically...from the hormones they feed the cows or something.
I know when I was 10, I couldn't get pregnant.
Whoever decides what meats are edible. etc. need to look into why kids are growing at the rate they are. I honestly believe it is the meat.
Geez, can a 10 year old carry the baby to full term and deliver a baby??
And some people think all abortions are out of the question!!

_

Heatherj43 wrote:

I am surprised a 10 year old CAN get pregnant. Maybe kids are just maturing too fast, not just metally, but physically...from the hormones they feed the cows or something.
I know when I was 10, I couldn't get pregnant.
Whoever decides what meats are edible. etc. need to look into why kids are growing at the rate they are. I honestly believe it is the meat.
Geez, can a 10 year old carry the baby to full term and deliver a baby??
And some people think all abortions are out of the question!!

I was physically capable of getting pregnant when I was 10, but my twin sister (who ate the same meals I did) wasn't capable of getting pregnant until she was 13 or 14.

stardust1976

Heatherj43 wrote:

I am surprised a 10 year old CAN get pregnant. Maybe kids are just maturing too fast, not just metally, but physically...from the hormones they feed the cows or something.
I know when I was 10, I couldn't get pregnant.
Whoever decides what meats are edible. etc. need to look into why kids are growing at the rate they are. I honestly believe it is the meat.
Geez, can a 10 year old carry the baby to full term and deliver a baby??
And some people think all abortions are out of the question!!

Puberty can hit a girl anywhere between the age of 9 and 15 and that range is considered normal. Of course 9 is early and 15 is late, but it's not considered abnormal, which tells you that a good proportion of girls fall into that early or late category. Once a girl begins menstruating, she of course is physically capable of carrying a baby. Mentally, well, that's a whole other ball game, and really - you need to look at the parents of this girl. One - the possibility that it was her father or another close male relative who got her pregnant would be pretty high - two, the parents should be questioned extensively on their reasons to let the child carry the baby, and not have an abortion. A 10 year old is not mentally able to have a child because she is a child. This will damage her for the rest of her life, if the act that caused the pregnancy hasn't already. THe whole case is very very sad, and is an indicator of our sick society, where kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore.

Kevinman

Perhaps our society is not as bad as you may think. I am glad to see that everyone on this post has replied with pretty much the same thoughts. Normal conscience thinking. This "10 year old pregnancy" may have been common in the past, but there wasn't nearly the amount of communication to spread this news. With tools like the internet, we as a society are made aware of things that normal thinking can't comprehend. It's just nice to see normal thinking on this post.

Heatherj43

stardust1976 wrote:

Heatherj43 wrote:

I am surprised a 10 year old CAN get pregnant. Maybe kids are just maturing too fast, not just metally, but physically...from the hormones they feed the cows or something.
I know when I was 10, I couldn't get pregnant.
Whoever decides what meats are edible. etc. need to look into why kids are growing at the rate they are. I honestly believe it is the meat.
Geez, can a 10 year old carry the baby to full term and deliver a baby??
And some people think all abortions are out of the question!!

Puberty can hit a girl anywhere between the age of 9 and 15 and that range is considered normal. Of course 9 is early and 15 is late, but it's not considered abnormal, which tells you that a good proportion of girls fall into that early or late category. Once a girl begins menstruating, she of course is physically capable of carrying a baby. Mentally, well, that's a whole other ball game, and really - you need to look at the parents of this girl. One - the possibility that it was her father or another close male relative who got her pregnant would be pretty high - two, the parents should be questioned extensively on their reasons to let the child carry the baby, and not have an abortion. A 10 year old is not mentally able to have a child because she is a child. This will damage her for the rest of her life, if the act that caused the pregnancy hasn't already. THe whole case is very very sad, and is an indicator of our sick society, where kids aren't allowed to be kids anymore.

I doubt she can "carry" a baby to full term. She may be able to get pregnant, but I doubt she will carry to term.

Lauri

unsung wrote:

Obvious answers aside. Do the parents just let their children run amuck? Is parental responsibility dead?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584936,00.html

Were your parents with you every second of the day when you were 10? Mine weren't. Plus if your 10 year old is hanging out with a male friend, you're probably going to assume it's innocent and nothing to worry about. Honestly though, the parents might have encouraged it...I have heard stories that parents these days really push their children to have boyfriends/girlfriends in the 4th, 5th grade.

And to whomever said that 10 year old girls shouldn't be physically able to get pregnant and "meat" is blame- I sort of agree with you that modern western diets and growth hormones may be leading to earlier puberty in girls overall, but individual girls have always varied significantly wrt first period. I had mine at 11, after about 2 years of puberty before that, and that was 20-25 years ago. A friend of mine is from the Philippines and she got her's at 9 and said it was very common in tropical climates. Who knows maybe climate change is contributing to it as well. Anyway, the point is, even if we didn't have growth hormones or whatever, some girls somewhere would be able to get pregnant at 10.

And beside the point, personally I think I need meat. I don't think everyone does, but I think I do, and it has a lot to do with some hormonal problems I have. I try to eat organic meat without hormones whenever possible, but in general, I feel every body is different and needs a different mix of nutrients. I actually have this "educated guess" of a theory that women may need to eat more meat than men. Humans have always had some meat in their diet as far as I know. Not saying it's great, just saying it's extreme to say meat is inedible and that everyone is different.

stardust1976

Lauri wrote:

I actually have this "educated guess" of a theory that women may need to eat more meat than men. Humans have always had some meat in their diet as far as I know. Not saying it's great, just saying it's extreme to say meat is inedible and that everyone is different.

Women do need more red meat than men because of the iron that the body absorbs and needs. Humans evolved into what we are today, largely due to the ability to cook and eat red meat. If we hadn't taken the evolutionary step of cooking and eating red meat, we would still be apes. If people are vegetarian they need to find something to supplement the nutrients and iron that meat gives them in order to maintain a healthy body. There is nothing wrong with doing this, and many thousands of people do it world over every day.

There is a common theory that animals ingest hormones through the grain and food they are fed. This is probably quite true, and eating organically may help eliminate this - but I can say with all honesty - I grew up largely in the country - we ate our own meat that we had raised and butchered, we drank fresh cows milk straight from the cow, and we had an orchard of fresh fruit to pick every day. Even with this - my sister and I both developed at different ages, we both went through puberty at different ages - she was earlier than me, but I was later than a lot of my friends as well, who all had the same lifestyle as me. The point is, is that everyone IS different, and it IS common for girls to develop ANYWHERE between the ages of 9 and 15. It's medical fact, and nothing to do with the hormones in meat. I am sure hormones are not really good for us - but are they contributing to adolescents reaching puberty earlier - I highly doubt it.

Also, once a girl has begun going through puberty, there would be no reason why she wouldn't be able to carry a child to term. My own daughter is 12 and she is already bigger than me. At 10 she was very close to my size - puberty develops bodies quite quickly, and although a child of any age, let alone 10, should not be pregnant, she would be able to carry a baby - as that is what the female body is designed to do once it has begun puberty.

Sian-of-the-dead

Heatherj43 wrote:

I am surprised a 10 year old CAN get pregnant. Maybe kids are just maturing too fast, not just metally, but physically...from the hormones they feed the cows or something.
I know when I was 10, I couldn't get pregnant.
Whoever decides what meats are edible. etc. need to look into why kids are growing at the rate they are. I honestly believe it is the meat.
Geez, can a 10 year old carry the baby to full term and deliver a baby??
And some people think all abortions are out of the question!!

I would have been able to get pregnant at 8 years old. I was a vegetarian.

I can quite easily believe a 10 year old has given birth, that isn't the issue. The issue is whether it is morally right or wrong. The 10 year old is a child herself, mentally and physically so this raises many questions: Who would have sex with a minor to get her pregnant? Someone has already said, children as young as 10-12 are sexually aware and experimenting. Again, this isn't right but it's happening. The baby was probably the result of a naive decision. Will she look after the baby herself? Probably not. I can see her parents being very involved. This isn't wrong as parents will always support their children but then this raises the question why did they let a 10 year old go ahead with a pregnancy? That depends on whether they agree with things like abortion and adoption.
There are many many questions raised by this article, questions we may never know the answer to but so long as the family do, that's all that matters. At the end of the day we're just people with opinions on an internet message board, we're not involved in their lives.

This doesn't mean that IMO I think it's right or that I wouldn't be upset, angry and disappointed if my 10 year old came home pregnant... I know it would certainly make me review my parenting skills and ask questions in my own head as to what I would do, but again, that decision would be mine and my daughter's.

I don't see what meat has to do with this? :?

_

stardust1976 wrote:

Also, once a girl has begun going through puberty, there would be no reason why she wouldn't be able to carry a child to term. My own daughter is 12 and she is already bigger than me. At 10 she was very close to my size - puberty develops bodies quite quickly, and although a child of any age, let alone 10, should not be pregnant, she would be able to carry a baby - as that is what the female body is designed to do once it has begun puberty.

While 10-year-olds can and do carry children to term, young girls' bodies in general are not yet as equipped as those of adult women for pregnancy and childbirth, which are more dangerous for girls.

Edit to add: Look, it lays it out right in the article:

this case is not about a teenager, noted Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, a leading high-risk obstetrician — it’s about a pre-teen whose body is not yet built to carry a child.

"Her body is clearly not defined for pregnancy with its short stature," Al-Khan said. "Her chest is not extensively developed for breast tissue, her bones aren't quite fused, and once you expose a child this young to high amounts of progesterone and especially estrogen, there is (a possibility) that it could halt her growth."

Al-Khan said other medical challenges facing a pregnant girl as young as 10 or 11 include:

— The pelvis is not defined for natural childbirth;

— The vagina could sustain injury during a natural birth;

— The patient is at high risk for preeclampsia, a pregnancy condition marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine, and which can lead to convulsions and multi-system organ failure;

— A higher risk of pre-term labor and delivery, which would mean the baby’s size would be compromised, leaving the baby at risk for developmental issues, fetal growth restriction and chromosomal abnormalities;

— Higher incidence of stillbirth;

— Higher incidence of cholestasis of pregnancy, a condition caused by the blockage of bile, which can lead to stillbirth and placenta issues;

— A chance of developing fatty liver, which can be fatal.

Lauri

stardust1976 wrote:

Lauri wrote:

I actually have this "educated guess" of a theory that women may need to eat more meat than men. Humans have always had some meat in their diet as far as I know. Not saying it's great, just saying it's extreme to say meat is inedible and that everyone is different.

Women do need more red meat than men because of the iron that the body absorbs and needs. Humans evolved into what we are today, largely due to the ability to cook and eat red meat. If we hadn't taken the evolutionary step of cooking and eating red meat, we would still be apes. If people are vegetarian they need to find something to supplement the nutrients and iron that meat gives them in order to maintain a healthy body. There is nothing wrong with doing this, and many thousands of people do it world over every day.

There is a common theory that animals ingest hormones through the grain and food they are fed. This is probably quite true, and eating organically may help eliminate this - but I can say with all honesty - I grew up largely in the country - we ate our own meat that we had raised and butchered, we drank fresh cows milk straight from the cow, and we had an orchard of fresh fruit to pick every day. Even with this - my sister and I both developed at different ages, we both went through puberty at different ages - she was earlier than me, but I was later than a lot of my friends as well, who all had the same lifestyle as me. The point is, is that everyone IS different, and it IS common for girls to develop ANYWHERE between the ages of 9 and 15. It's medical fact, and nothing to do with the hormones in meat. I am sure hormones are not really good for us - but are they contributing to adolescents reaching puberty earlier - I highly doubt it.

Also, once a girl has begun going through puberty, there would be no reason why she wouldn't be able to carry a child to term. My own daughter is 12 and she is already bigger than me. At 10 she was very close to my size - puberty develops bodies quite quickly, and although a child of any age, let alone 10, should not be pregnant, she would be able to carry a baby - as that is what the female body is designed to do once it has begun puberty.

Yup on all counts. I'd also add that vegetable hormones can cause problems too. There is a LOT of soy and corn in the processed foods we eat. These contain phytoestrogens that can really screw up a girl or woman's hormonal process (and probably men too).

And yeah, when I was 10 I was not much smaller than I am now. When most people get their period they are close to the height and weight of an adult. I was about 5'2" and 110-120 lbs when I got my period at 11.