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.
