How 5-Year-Old Lina Medina Became the Youngest Mother in History

Lina Medina, a young girl from Peru was only five years, seven months, and three weeks old when she gave birth to a baby boy, thereby, becoming the youngest mother in history. This was possible probably due to her precocious puberty and an alleged sex-related abuse that made the child have a child at such a tender age. This scenario, however, has remained a mystery, especially in medical history. This is the story of Lina Medina.

How Lina Medina Got Pregnant

It was in April 1939, when Lina’s mother took her to the hospital in Pisco, Peru, to see the famous Dr Gerardo Lozada for help. The poor woman noticed her daughter’s protruding belly and, as someone who lived in an isolated village of Ticrapo in the Andes, she looked worried.

Her belief was that evil spirits had taken possession of her young daughter’s body, as Lina’s stomach seemed to have some kind of unusual growth. At once, Dr Lozada thought it had to be a huge abdominal tumour.

However, in order to ascertain his suspicions, the doctor then carried out a more careful assessment of the five-year-old. To his astonishment, Lozada could clearly hear a heartbeat. Alas, the child was carrying a child.

To be sure and confirm his results, Lozada then took the girl to Peru’s capital, Lima, to see other doctors. The report was positive. She was a small girl in her seventh month of pregnancy.

The Youngest Mother in History

Then, on May 14, 1939, at the age of five years, seven months, and three weeks, Lina Medina became the youngest mother in world history to have ever given birth to a child. A healthy boy, who weighed 2.7 kilogrammes. It was a new development in the history of medicine. A miracle!

As the young mother’s pelvis was too fragile to sustain a normal birth, the infant was born via Caesarean section. To a far greater surprise, all went well, and the mother and the child were in good health.

The child boy was named Gerardo, after Dr Gerardo Lozada. The doctor who took care of her unusual case.

Lina quickly became a national sensation, and subsequent medical tests showed that she had a rare disorder known as precocious puberty. A situation in which a child experiences puberty at an unusually young age. This rare condition occurs in 1 in every 10,000 children. In reality, her ovaries have been completely grown.

Further studies have confirmed that she had her first period at the age of three. At the age of four, the breasts grew progressively. At the time she clocked five, her body showed signs of advanced maturation with the rapid growth of bones.

Now, the most troubling question in all these was, who impregnated the girl?

Incest?

At first, the Peruvian authorities believed that Lina’s situation was a case of child incest. As a result, her father was arrested and charged with sexual assault. There was nothing substantial to validate the claim, however, and Lina’s father was released.

As of today, the identity of the father of the boy has never been revealed because of the probability that Lina was too young to know.

Lina’s parents raised the girl and her son together, and the boy, Gerardo, assumed that Lina was his eldest sister until he was ten years old when he was told that she was actually his mother.

Later Years

Dr Lozada continued to support the young mother and her son, and during Lina’s teenage years, she was employed by the doctor in his office to earn a salary. Subsequently, she was able to obtain some education for herself, as well as for her son, Gerardo.

With time, Lina married a man named Raul Jurado, and together they had a son in 1972. The boy was 33 years younger than his half-brother, Gerardo.

However, Gerardo died at the age of 40 only seven years later due to a disease of the bone marrow.

According to Dr Gerardo Lozada, the story of the youngest mother in history, Lina Medina, was “the most incredible thing” that had ever happened in the course of his career and, of course, an unsolved mystery in medical history.

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Sources

Mikkelson, D. (2004, July 21). Was the World’s Youngest Mother Only 5 Years Old? Snopes. Retrieved from https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/youngest-mother/

Rare Historical Photos. (n.d.). Lina Medina, the youngest confirmed mother in medical history, 1939. Rare Historical Photos. Retrieved from https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/lina-medina-youngest-mother-1939/