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Today in History - May 14

Ticrapo, Huancavelica Region, Peru, 1939

On May 14, 1939, a girl named Lina Medina became the youngest recorded mother in history, at 5 years, 7 months, and 17 days of age.

Originally thought to have a massive abdominal tumor that was growing at an alarming rate, Lina’s parents took her to the nearest hospital, where she was diagnosed as being seven months pregnant. The doctor who diagnosed her, Dr. Gerardo Lozada, took her to Lima, Peru, to a larger hospital, in order to have his diagnosis confirmed and to have Lina’s condition monitored.

One-and-a-half months later, a caesarean-section was performed on the small girl, and her son Gerardo Medina was born. He was named after the doctor who delivered him, and who mentored and provided medical care to both Lina and the boy, after the birth and through their young adulthood. Until he was 10-years-old, Gerardo was raised to believe that his mom was really his sister, but after incessant teasing at school one year, the doctor and Lina told him the truth. By most accounts, he was a normal child, and fairly bright. He died at age 40, of an unrelated bone cancer.

How did this happen?

Well, precocious puberty isn’t all that uncommon, but extreme precocious puberty is. Some children with extreme precocious puberty reach menarche (first menstruation) at nine months or younger, and if this condition is allowed to continue, the body develops to the point where a full-term pregnancy is completely possible. Today, hormone-suppressing drugs are available, and many of the complications of precocious puberty (both psychological and physical) are avoided, but the early versions of these medications were both dangerous and not terribly effective.

Lina had begun menstruating at eight-months-old, and began developing breast tissue at four-years-old. Though her hips had begun widening significantly beyond where they should be for a child her age, they were obviously nowhere near large enough to deliver a baby at just five-years-old.

Of course, this still leads to the question of who would impregnate a five-year-old. Her father was initially arrested on suspicion of incest and rape, but the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence. Other possibilities included her mentally-deficient older brother, an uncle, or one of the village men, during an Andean fertility festival. Lina herself never gave a clear answer to who impregnated her, and it’s completely possible that she herself doesn’t know.

Lina Today

Lina Medina had a second son in 1972, almost 33 years after her first. She is still alive today, in a poor section of Lima, Peru, and lives with her husband Raul Jurado. Despite living in relative poverty, she refuses media and publicity as much as possible, and prefers her privacy over fiscal gain.

Read More about Lina Medina:

LINA MEDINA, MADRE A LOS CINCO AÑOS

Youngest Mother @ DamnInteresting

Youngest Mother? by Snopes

Time Magazine: Little Mother [similar case]

Calcutta Telegraph

All images from listed sources.

1939 WPA Posters for the Improvement of Public Health

While the flies were a visible and tangible problem when one did not have an outhouse or latrine installed, the real danger, as I stated before, was from hookworm infection, and the subsequent destruction of the productivity of those afflicted. To be sure, dysentery and cholera spread by flies were serious dangers. However, they presented themselves in a most obvious fashion, and medical care could then be given. Hookworm? Well, if you don’t know you have something, you probably aren’t going to go to the doctor just cause you’re feeling tired and run down, especially if that’s the only way you’ve felt your entire life.

Posters from Library of Congress Archives: For the People, By the People WPA Project.