Ten Year-Old Girl Becomes Mother
According to a report by Univision's Primer Impacto, a girl believed to be only ten has given birth to a daughter at a hospital in Maraure, Colombia. "At a time when (the girls) should be playing with dolls, they are having to take care of a baby. It's shocking," the hospital director told RCN La Radio noticias.
The young mother belongs to the Wayuu tribe, an indigenous group from the La Guajira Peninsula in the northern region of Colombia and Venezuela. Reportedly, she arrived at the hospital bleeding and sobbing with pain. This was the first time she had been seen by a doctor during the pregnancy.
The girl was thirty-nine weeks pregnant and delivered a healthy five-pound baby by Cesarian-section. According to reports, she is refusing to breastfeed. The baby's father hasn't been identified. Its unclear whether he could be prosecuted because the Colombian constitution allows indigenous groups some sovereignty.
"Since it's a Wayuu girl we are trying to respect all of their rights since they have autonomy and their own jurisdiction," Alejandro Samplayo, director of Instituto Colombiano Bienestar Familiar, a local family planning organization, told the Huffington Post. The director of the hospital added, "We've already seen similar cases of Wayuu girls."
According to Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean, girls under 15 who become pregnant are five times more likely to die from causes related to pregnancy or childbirth than those at 20 years of age.
