Most people are shocked when they learn that the youngest female in recorded history to give birth was only five years old. They are sometimes even more shocked to learn that the youngest grandmother was only 17. But due to a medical condition known as “ᴘʀᴇᴄᴏᴄɪᴏᴜs ᴘᴜʙᴇʀᴛʏ” (note: also due to men who rape young girls) many females achieve sexual maturity at ages when other children are barely out of infancy. Here are seven cases – all of them verified by medical science – of females who gave birth between ages five and eight.
- Yelizaveta “Liza” Pantueva (Ukraine)…Gave Birth 8/19/1934…Age: Just over 6 years old
In the early 1930s, what is now recognized as the sovereign nation of Ukraine was part of the Sᴏᴠɪᴇᴛ Uɴɪᴏɴ. In a 1932-33 ᴛʀᴀɢᴇᴅʏ known as the Holodomor, an estimated 4-7 million Ukrainians would sᴛᴀʀᴠe to ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ based on the deliberate policies of Soviet Communist leader Joseph Stalin.
In 1933 in this terror-ravaged country, a five-year-old girl named Yelizaveta Pantueva was raped and impregnated by her 70-year-old maternal grandfather. Little Liza gave birth mere days after her sixth birthday. Although her parents didn’t want the doctors to perform a Caesarean section, the physicians proceeded to deliver a 6.6-pound baby girl via forceps and retractors, ᴀᴄᴄɪᴅᴇɴᴛally causing a placental tear during delivery and thereby killing the infant as it was being delivered. It is thought that if the child had been born naturally, she would have survived.
After the failed birth, the entire family emigrated from Kharkov to Vladivostok—including the rapist grandfather.
- Mum-Zi (Niger Coast)…Gave Birth December 1884…Age: 8 years, 4 months
In what is now Nigeria, a very young girl named Mum-Zi was part of Chief Akkiri’s harem on an island named Calabar. Not much is known about the birth except that her daughter would become the next person on this list…
- Zi (Niger Coast)…Gave Birth August 1893…Age: 8 years, 8 months
Mum-Zi’s daughter earned her mother a place in the history books—by delivering her own child at such an insanely young age, she catapulted Mum-Zi into the history books as the youngest grandmother in world history at the age of barely 17 years.
- Anna Mummenthaler (Switzerland)…Gave Birth 12/5/1759…Age: 8 years, 9 months
Very little is known about this case except for that it happened in the Old Swiss Confederacy, which is now known simply as Switzerland. The girl came from the village of Lauperswil in the Canton of Bern and had been impregnated by a relative. She delivered a stillborn girl when she was just three months shy of nine years old.
- Lina Medina (Peru)…Gave Birth 5/14/1939…Age: 5 years, 7 months, 21 days
When the parents of a Peruvian girl named Lina Medina brought their five-year-old girl to the hospital in March 1939 after she complained of severe abdominal pain, it was originally assumed that she had a ᴛᴜᴍᴏʀ.
After careful examination, however, it was revealed that she was seven months pregnant. Physicians concluded that she had her first period at a mind-boggling eight months of age.
She finally gave birth to a son in May of 1939. He was delivered via Caesarean section due to Lina’s exceptionally small pelvis. The boy was named Gerardo after Lina’s attending physician and weighed six pounds. The boy grew up healthy and was told that Lina was his sister rather than his mother, but he finally learned he was her son when he was ten years old. Gerardo lived to be forty years old.
Authorities initially arrested Lina’s father on suspicion that he raped her, but he was released due to a lack of evidence. Gerardo’s father was never identified.
Upon reaching adulthood, Lina worked as a secretary in Lima, Peru. She married a man named Raul Jurado and once again gave birth in 1972. She was still living in a poor section of Lima as of 2002, the last time she was known to be alive.
The story was initially thought to have been some elaborate hoax, but physicians later confirmed the case as authentic based on biopsies and X-rays of the baby’s skeleton in utero.
- Unidentified Muslim Girl (Kashmir, India)…Gave Birth August 1933…Age: 8 years
This case is especially tragic because both the mother and her child ᴅɪᴇd in the course of giving birth. The girl’s mother was reportedly a “destitute” widow who, according to religious rules, had been forced to accept a marriage proposal for her eight-year-old daughter. According to a report from the British Medical Journal:
“The child, a Mohammedan, was brought from a distance, and her age was stated as 8. Judging from her tiny hands and feet, her childish piping voice, and from her teeth, she could not have been more. The result was not so fortunate, for both she and her baby ᴅɪᴇd. On questioning the mother she said she was very poor, and left a widow with a number of children, and could not help it as she had an offer of marriage for her. This was true, as in the circumstances girl children would not be safe unmarried and without a father. The husband did not appear. One now understands why girl children in Kashmir are put in purdah (seclusion) at eight years old.”
- Unidentified Girl known only as “H.” (Delhi, India)…Gave Birth 10/11/1925…Age: 6 years, 7 months
A Muslim girl identified only as “H.” was taken to a hospital in Delhi India in June of 1932, and like Lina Medina, it was originally suspected that she was suffering from a huge abdominal ᴛᴜᴍᴏʀ.
She gave birth to a female child who weighed just over four pounds. Here is the complete entry from the British Medical Journal describing the girl’s birth:
“A CASE OF MATERNITY AT SEVEN YEARS OF AGE
It seems worth while to report the following case owing to the immature age of the mother.
H., a Mohammedan unmarried girl, was admitted into hospital on March 18, 1932 for an abdominal ᴛᴜᴍᴏᴜʀ. Her age as given by the father was 7 years. Height: 3 ft. 11 in.; weight 3 st 6 lb. The milk teeth were still present, except the first molars and the lower right incisor; the left lower incisor was just erupting in front of the milk tooth. The patient had never menstruated. On examination the ᴛᴜᴍᴏᴜʀ proved to be the uterus, six and a half months pregnant. Labour started on June 7th. The pelvic measurements were: interspinous, barely 7 inches; intercristal, barley 8 inches.; external conjugate, 5-1/2 inches. A trial of labour was given, but as the head would not engage Casearean section was performed, and a living female child weighing 4 lb. 3 oz. was delivered. Beyond suffering from fright for the first three days the mother made a perfect recovery, was able to nurse her baby, and continued to do so for nine months. The weight of the child at the end of this time was 11 lb. 2 oz.
The date of the patient’s birth was taken from the municipal records, and was verified by the health officer, who personally interviewed the father. The l atter stated that he had had a song two years before the girl was born, and as this entry was verified by the health officer too there seems no doubt that the age given by the father was correct. The entry showed that the girl-mother was born on October 11, 1925.”
Although “H.” reportedly never menstruated and still had undeveloped breast, she breastfed her infant for nine months.
