5-Year-old Mother: Incredible Story Of A Women Who Became the World's Youngest Mother

Lina Medina became the youngest mother in history by giving birth at the age of five years. This story is still a medical wonder and hard to believe, but it is true.

Lina Medina was born in Ticrapo, Castrovirreyna Province, Peru, and she was one of nine children. In April 1939, Lina was brought to the hospital in Pisco, Peru. The parents were worried about her increased abdominal size. The doctors initially assumed a huge abdominal tumor. However, after careful evaluation, the doctors discovered that the girl is in her seventh month of pregnancy. Dr. Gerardo Lozada took her to the country’s capital of Lima to validate the findings. Specialists also confirmed that Lina was in her seventh month of pregnancy. A month and a half after the diagnosis, Lina Media made the new miracle in medical history by giving birth to a baby boy at the age of 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days. The boy was weighed 2.7 kg (6.0 lb) and named Gerardo after her doctor who handled her extraordinary case.

How the baby was born

When doctors performed the cesarean to deliver her baby, they found she already had fully mature sexual organs from precocious puberty and her ovaries were fully developed. A rare disorder that occurs in 1 out of every 10,000 children. Lina had her first period at three-years-old. By the age of four, she had advanced the development of her breasts.

How Lina got pregnant

How the five-year-old girl got pregnant is still a mystery. Initially, her father was accused of sexual abuse; however, due to lack of evidence, the case was dismissed, and the biological father was never identified. Doctors suggested she might not actually know herself by writing that Medina “couldn’t give precise responses.”

Gerardo was raised believing that Medina was his sister. When he turned ten, he was told the girl is her mother. He died in 1979 at the age of 40, from either bone cancer or a bone marrow infection.

Where is Lina Medina now

In adulthood, Medina worked as a secretary in the Lima clinic of Lozada who also put her son through high education. Medina later married Raúl Jurado, with whom she had the second son in 1972. Lima lives with her husband in Lima, Peru and their son lives in Mexico.