Do you remember what you were doing at the age of 10? Hopefully you weren’t in the hospital getting ready to give birth, but in the case of a 10-year-old girl from Manaure in Colombia, that’s exactly what she did. The young girl, according to CBS News, is from an indigenous tribe called Wayuu, and she gave birth recently via cesarean section. She came into the hospital complaining of massive pains and bleeding a great deal. Allegedly, this child is not the first girl from the Wayuu tribe to wind up pregnant, but because the tribe is allowed to govern itself in Colombia, police don’t usually try to go after the fathers. This is what the director of the hospital in which the girl gave birth told a local Colombian radio station: “We’ve already seen similar cases of Wayuu girls. At a time when (the girls) should be playing with dolls, they go to having to take care of a baby. It’s shocking.”
According to reports, she gave birth to a healthy 5-pound, 5-ounce baby girl, but that the delivery was the first time the girl had been to the doctor at all since becoming pregnant. Since giving birth, the 10-year-old new mother allegedly doesn’t seem interested in trying to breastfeed, nor does she understand or know a thing about motherhood. But I mean, at the age of 10, the closest thing you would know about “motherhood” is from what you see your own mother doing, or better yet, from lugging around a doll.
While we’re glad that she came out of the delivery alright, according to CBS News, she could face some serious health risks and major obstacles down the road:
“Pregnant mothers this young could face major risks, according to doctors. They face a higher risk for pregnancy-induced hypertension (high blood pressure) or a dangerous condition called preeclampsia, in which a mom-to-be with high blood pressure also has protein in their urine, which causes sudden weight gain and swelling of the hands and face…According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, they could also face long-term risk for problems with school failure, poverty, and mental illness such as depression.”
It’s terrible to think that this young girl won’t be able to actually be a child anymore, and it’s probably worse to know that this “trend” of VERY young mothers (both a 10 and 11-year-old girl gave birth in Mexico last year) is becoming somewhat common. The fact that she and her baby are healthy is an absolute blessing, but her pregnancy in general (and the fact that she only saw a doctor about it once)? Now that’s just a horrifying mess…
