Fox News: 11-Year-Old Girl Gives Birth to Baby Boy
Updated: Friday, 05 Feb 2010, 2:22 PM EST
Published : Friday, 05 Feb 2010, 2:21 PM EST
Updated: Friday, 05 Feb 2010, 2:22 PM EST
Published : Friday, 05 Feb 2010, 2:21 PM EST
(Fox News) – An 11-year-old girl in the United States recently gave birth to a baby boy, the girl’s family told Fox News on Friday.
"My daughter and (her) baby are fine, and the baby is absolutely beautiful," said the mother of the 11-year-old girl. The girl and her family are not being named in order to protect the new parent's privacy.
A recent report by the Guttmacher Institute said teen pregnancies in the U.S. were up 3 percent in 2006. But this case is not about a teenager, noted Dr. Abdulla Al-Khan, a leading high-risk obstetrician — it’s about a pre-teen whose body is not yet built to carry a child.
"Her body is clearly not defined for pregnancy with its short stature," Al-Khan said. "Her chest is not extensively developed for breast tissue, her bones aren't quite fused, and once you expose a child this young to high amounts of progesterone and especially estrogen, there is (a possibility) that it could halt her growth."
There are also psychological issues associated with pre-teen pregnancy because a 10-year-old cannot be mentally ready to give birth, Al-Khan said.