10-year-old gives birth

A ten-year-old girl from Charleroi gave birth to a baby last year. The father was 13.

"The pregnancy was a big surprise to the girl and her mother," says doctor Robert Chef from Charleroi. "The child came to me with unexplained abdominal pain. She had also put on weight. Her mother had even put her on a diet for a while but that had little effect. When we examined her it turned out she was nine months pregnant. The child was carrying a full term baby."

What surprised the doctor the most was that the 10-year-old really looked her age. "Some girls look like a teenager of 15 or 16 at that age. But not this girl."

Yesterday the medical weekly De Huisarts reported that 57 Belgian 10-year-olds had been prescribed a birth control pill last year. Some for medical reasons, but others for actual birth control.

So much for wearing white on her wedding day. Still, 10 years old. Hell, I was reading comics (well, still do), playing the Atari 2600, and enjoying sports. A relation with the females just wasn't on the radar. Maybe I'm old school, but 10 years old is a bit young to be screwing around.