Mexican 9-Year-Old Mom Is Actually 12 or 13, Officials Say
Published at
Comstock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — A young Mexican girl who gave birth to a daughter two weeks ago is actually 12 or 13 years old, not 9 years old as her parents initially claimed, authorities say.
The girl, identified as Dafne, was impregnated by her 44-year-old step-father, according to Lino Gonzalez Corona, a spokesperson for the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office. The stepfather is under arrest after admitting to having his first sexual encounter with Dafne in April 2012 and a second in June.
Dafne’s mother was unaware of the sexual relationship, according to Corona. She thought the baby’s father was a 17-year-old boy that her daughter had met at a local market. She learned of the pregnancy in November 2012, two months before Dafne delivered a healthy baby girl by C-section on Jan. 27, 2013.
“Due to her young age and to the fact that her body was not ready to give birth,” said Dr. Enrique Rabago, director of Zoquipan Hospital, “the medical team decided a C-Section was the best option” for both mother and child.
Roughly 25 percent of the pregnancies seen at Zoquipan Hospital last year were among teens, according to Rabago.
Doctor Raymundo Serrano, chief of gynecology at Zoquipan Hospital, and his team decided to insert a contraceptive implant to avoid another pregnancy. He described the implant as a small, flexible rod placed just under the skin in the upper arm that releases progestogen and works for up to three years.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio