This comes a few weeks after a 13-year-old girl from
Mkhosana Township in Victoria Falls wrote part of her Zimsec Grade Seven
examinations on a hospital bed soon after giving birth at Victoria Falls
Hospital. In the Victoria Falls case, the girl was not aware that she was
pregnant until a month before giving birth.
The UBH case has seen the nine-year-old, who is about one
month away from giving birth, being monitored by a team of specialist doctors
and nurses owing to the delicate nature of the pregnancy.
Reports have indicated that the nine-year-old is from
Tsholotsho Discrict in Matabeleland North Province with officials from the
Department of Social Welfare in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and
Social Welfare investigating circumstances surrounding the pregnancy. Sources
claimed she could have been raped and impregnated by a “close person”, hence
the investigations that also involve the police.
A Sunday News crew last week visited UBH and spoke to the
acting chief executive officer of the institution, Dr Harrison Rambanapasi, who
confirmed the matter, but could not share finer details. He said the girl
actually conceived when she was eight years old, which was made possible by a
rare condition of precocious puberty (development of sexual maturation earlier
than the normal age). Dr Rambanapasi said ordinarily puberty should start at 11
years.
“Yes, I can confirm that we have such a case at the
hospital and she is being seen by various specialists who are assisting her,”
he said.
The acting CEO said this was the first time he had come
across such a case, arguing that to the majority in the medical profession,
this was something they came across just in medical journals.
“Books of medicine talk about a nine-year-old who has
delivered before, but that is a very long time ago and not in this country, but
for me this is a first in my career, the youngest I had seen earlier was a
12-year-old, a victim of sexual abuse. Now we have this nine-year-old and it’s
a bit unfortunate that we see such a case,” said Dr Rambanapasi.
Online research revealed that the youngest mother in world
history was a five year- old Peruvian who gave birth via an operation on 14 May
1939.
Reports said based on the medical assessments of her
pregnancy, she was less than five years old when she became pregnant, which was
possible due to precocious puberty. Dr Rambanapasi, without shedding much
information on the case in question pointed out some of the challenges that
come with issues of that nature.
“There are a lot of challenges, this is a child who is
supposed to be in school, a child who should be playing with other children.
She is supposed to be looked after by her parents as a child but now you impose
on her, this extra responsibility. This is going to affect the other things
that she should be working on at this stage, like going to school.
It is going to be strange to her and also her peers, people
will be looking at her, probably laughing and mocking her and that affects her
mentally as well,” he said.
Dr Rambanapasi said physically a nine-year-old is not
prepared for sexual intercourse.
“When we look at sexual intercourse, before the changes of
puberty have fully occurred, intercourse will be very traumatic because the
body has not developed enough for her to be engaging in sexual activities.
The resilience of the genitals is not yet developed. Before
we even talk about her falling pregnant, this is obviously a result of an
abusive relationship. Is this child capacitated to negotiate for safe sex? At
this age they are also prone to sexually transmitted infections, HIV, unwanted
pregnancies because they do not know how to protect themselves. Sunday News
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