There are many Urban Legends and Hoaxes about pregnancy, but above all Lina Medina’s story made the biggest impression on me. She is famous in the medical community for being the youngest mother in recorded history. At the age of five years she gave birth by Caesarean section to a healthy baby boy. When Lina, who was born in Ticrapo, Peru, first became pregnant, her parents did not realize what was happening. Due to her increasing abdominal size, they thought she had a tumor. They tried many local remedies, but when nothing worked they brought her to a doctor who diagnosed that she would be giving birth to a child soon. Dr. Gerardo Lozada was not sure about his thoughts, so he took her to Lima, Peru to confirm her pregnancy. A month and a half later, on May 14, 1939, she gave birth to a healthy boy and she named him Gerardo, after her doctor. Although the story was called a hoax, based on documents, pictures, and doctor’s verification, it is easily verifiable. During her pregnancy, doctors took x-rays and biopsies which proved that she would be a mother. When Lina was seven months pregnant, doctors took a picture showing her developmental body. Peru’s best physician, Dr . Edmundo Escomel, discovered that Lina already had regular periods when she was only eight months old, and she had a hormone disorder which explained her fully developed ovaries and matured body. The father of Lina’s Gerardo was never determined. Due to her age, doctors determined that she did not know what was happening to her. This part of the story seems false because a five year old girl usually spends all her time with her parents and already could explain with her own words if she was abused or raped. From personal experience, I know that a child at this age loves to talk about everything that is happening around her. She could have told her own mother. Although they could not prove it, the community was suspicious of Lina’s father. He was jailed for rape and incest, but he was released due to lack of evidence. After researching, I found out that, in the 1930’s there was no effective techniques which could identify biological relationships. I have to come to the conclusion that based on the evidence this story is true. Because this case is so unusual, the doctors were supposed to gather more data to prove the fact of the story. I don’t know, for example, how they could have taken only two pictures.
This story, which has been wrongly dismissed as an Urban Legend, demonstrates that girls can be endangered at very young ages.