Gerardo Medina, a healthy six-pound boy, was born on May 14, 1939, in Peru. He was named for the doctor who performed the delivery.

Lina Medina, Gerardo’s mother, was one of the hundreds of thousands of women across the world who gave birth that day. Her delivery, however, put her in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The new mother was a child herself. At the age of five years, seven months, and twenty-one days, Lina Medina is the youngest confirmed birth mother in medical history.

Although many believe Lina’s pregnancy was a hoax, multiple doctors verified the birth through biopsies, X-rays of the fetal skeleton in utero, and photographs taken by the doctors caring for her. She is recognized as the youngest documented case of precocious puberty.

Mother And Child

Lina And Gerardo Medina

Lina Medina was one of nine children of Tiburelo and Victoria Medina of Losea Ticrapo, Castrovirreyna Province, in southwestern Peru. Her father worked as a silversmith.

Victoria Losea And Tiburelo Medina

Lina’s Parents

In March 1939, Lina was brought to the hospital as her parents were concerned about her increasing abdominal size. Doctors initially believed the young child had a tumor, but tests revealed she was in her seventh month of pregnancy.

Five-Year-Old Lina Is Pregnant

One-and-a-half months later, the birth was performed by a caesarean section necessitated by her small pelvis.

Pregnant Lina

Lina Medina’s is the only verified case of extreme precocious pregnancy, or early sexual development, in a child under age six. Following the birth, her father was arrested on suspicion of child sexual abuse but was soon released due to lack of evidence.

A Nurse With Baby And Baby Mom

Young Gerardo was told that Lina was his sister.  It was not until he was ten-years-old that he learned she was his mother.

Lina and Gerardo

Not Sister And Brother

Gerardo Medina died from a bone disease at age forty in 1979. He had grown up healthy; the disease was not related to the unusual circumstances of his birth.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/244045650/gerardo-alejandro-medina#

 

 

Gerardo and Lina

Ages Eighteen and Twenty-Three

Lina Medina eventually married and gave birth to another son in 1972, when she was thirty-eight-years-old.  She has never revealed who is the biological father of her first child nor the circumstances of the impregnation. Many believe, because she was so young, that she herself may not know the answers.

The now ninety-years-old Lina is believed to be living in Lima, Peru. She has repeatedly declined requests for interviews.

Keeping Mum

About Being A Mom

SOURCES:
• History Channel
• New York Times
• Time Magazine