Draft:List of youngest parents

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This is a list of youngest parents which documents cases in which individuals became parents at exceptionally early ages, typically before the onset of adolescence. Such cases are rare and often attract medical, legal, and social attention due to the significant health risks and ethical considerations involved. This list is not comprehensive and only includes records or other historically notable cases.

Youngest mothers

Lina Medina in 1939

Lina Medina

Lina Medina, a Peruvian girl, became the youngest confirmed mother in history when she gave birth to her son Gerardo on 14 May 1939 aged 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days.[1][2] Based on the medical assessments of her pregnancy, she was four years old when she became pregnant, which was biologically possible due to precocious puberty.[3] The father was not conclusively determined.[1]

Yelizaveta "Liza" P.

In 1934, a girl named Yelizaveta "Liza" P. from Soviet Ukraine gave birth at 6 years old after being raped by her maternal grandfather.[4] The baby, a girl, died in childbirth due to an umbilical cord problem though Liza survived. Her fate afterwards is unknown. Some sources incorrectly state her last name was Gryshchenko;[5] this was in fact the name of the doctor who delivered the baby.[6][7]

Unnamed girl ("H.")

On 18 March 1932, a girl known only as H., who was 6 years and 7 months old according to government records (though her father gave her age as 7 years) gave birth to a healthy baby girl in Delhi, India. The girl fully recovered and was able to nurse the baby for nine months.[8]

Other notable cases

There have been multiple documented instances of girls giving birth at 8 years old.[9] One of the most notable historical cases was Swiss girl Anna Mummenthaler who gave birth in 1759; reportedly the father was her uncle.[9]

Youngest fathers

Unlike the record for the youngest mother, the record for the youngest confirmed father has not been definitively published.

Hsi family

In 1910, a 9-year-old boy in China was reported to have fathered a child with an 8-year-old girl. These are considered the youngest recorded parents in combined age.[10][11] According to a 1957 Ripley's publication, the family name was Hsi and they were farmers in Amoy (Xiamen).[12]

Alberto S.

In 2015, a boy from the Mexican state of Chiapas fathered a child at 11 years old. The boy had been sold by his parents to another family at 10 years old in exchange for some cattle, and he was forced to live with a 16-year-old girl who became the mother of his child. Telemundo stated he "could be the youngest father in the world".[13]

Other notable cases

In 2001, state records showed that the youngest father in Illinois was 10 years old,[14] and in 2009, that the youngest father in North Dakota was 11 years old.[15] However, further information about these cases is not available.

There have been several documented instances of 12-year-old boys fathering children, with notable examples including Sean Stewart from the United Kingdom in 1998[16] and a boy from Kerala, India in 2017.[17]

Youngest grandmothers

Mum-Zi

September 1929 Ripley's "Believe It or Not" feature with Mum-Zi

Mum-Zi (born c. 1875–1876) was a Nigerian girl who is said to have been the youngest known grandmother in history, at 17 years old.[18][19][20]

The first English language source that is known to have reported on Mum-Zi was a syndicated Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper feature in September 1929.[21][22] The story was published with a few additional details in "The New Believe It or Not!" in 1931, Ripley's second Believe It or Not volume.[23][24] Subsequent sources about her life have contained similar information as Ripley's accounts.

According to the story, Mum-Zi was from the island of Calabar in Nigeria. At the age of seven, she was forced to join the harem of the island's ruler, Chief Akkiri, and shortly after became pregnant.[25] She gave birth in August 1884 at age eight years and four months to a healthy baby girl.[25][26][27] Mum-Zi's daughter was also forced into the harem and gave birth at eight or nine years old (sources vary, with Ripley saying nine in the original 1929 article, and eight in subsequent books), making Mum-Zi a grandmother at age 17.[18][28][29] Few additional details about her are known besides that she was raised Muslim.[30]

Rifca Stanescu

In 2011, a Romanian woman named Rifca Stanescu became a grandmother at age 23. A member of the Romani community, she married a 13-year-old boy when she was 11 and gave birth at age 12. Her daughter Maria subsequently married at age 10 against her mother's wishes and gave birth at age 11.[31] Some sources have described her and not Mum-Zi as the youngest grandmother in the world.[32]

Occurrence of pre-teen parenthood

Available data indicates that pre-teen pregnancy is significantly rarer than teen pregnancy. A UNICEF study of Thailand between 2004 and 2013 found 938 registered births from mothers aged 10–12, compared to 28,605 from mothers aged 13–14.[33] The CDC recorded the 2016 birth rate of girls aged 10–12 in the United States as 0.11 per 10,000, compared to 1.80 for age 13 and 9.30 for age 14.[34]

References

  1. Mikkleson, David (7 February 2015). "Youngest Mother". Snopes. Retrieved 25 January 2017.
  2. "Six decades later, world's youngest mother awaits aid". The Telegraph. Kolkata. 27 August 2002. Archived from the original on 22 July 2009. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
  3. "Raped 5 year-old Peruvian is world's youngest mum". P.M. News. Lagos, Nigeria. 2 July 2020. Archived from the original on 2022-12-27. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  4. Хажинский, П. Х.; Ершов, С. И. (1934). "О «pubertas praecox» и беременность и срочные роды у шестилетней девочки" [About "pubertas praecox" and pregnancy and term delivery in a six-year-old girl]. Журнал акушерства и женских болезней. 44 (1): 173–180.
  5. Evans, Natalie (2013-02-06). "Babies having babies: A new mum aged NINE and the world's youngest mothers in medical history". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  6. ТКАЧУК, Тарас (2004-04-02). "Самая молодая мама в истории человечества 6-летняя Лиза из Харькова, забеременела… от собственного деда-моряка". Факты (in Russian). Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  7. "Родила в 6 лет: печальная и таинственная судьба самой молодой матери в СССР". РЕН ТВ (in Russian). 2018-11-02. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
  8. "A Case of Maternity at Seven Years of Age". BMJ. 2 (3794): 567–569. 1933-09-23. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3794.567. ISSN 0959-8138. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
  9. Janssen, Diederik F (2020-11-13). "Puer barbatus: Precocious Puberty in Early Modern Medicine". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 76 (1). Oxford University Press (OUP): 20–52. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jraa045. ISSN 0022-5045.
  10. Hyde, Janet Shibley (1986). Understanding Human Sexuality. McGraw-Hill. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-07-031587-7. Retrieved 2025-09-08.
  11. Zastrow, Charles; Kirst-Ashman, Karen Kay (2000-07-13). Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Cengage Learning. p. 245. ISBN 978-0-534-54701-1. Retrieved 2025-12-09.
  12. Ripley, Robert LeRoy (1957). Ripley's Believe it Or Not: Wonder Book of Strange Facts. Universal Guild. Retrieved 2025-09-08.
  13. "Con 11 años, niño mexicano es el padre más joven del mundo". Telemundo (in Spanish). 2015-11-12. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  14. "2001 Illinois Selected Vital Statitics". Illinois Department of Public Health. Archived from the original on 2023-01-16. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
  15. "North Dakota Fast Facts 2009" (PDF). North Dakota Department of Health. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  16. Watson-Smyth, Kate (1998-01-21). "Sean, 12, is the youngest father". The Independent. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  17. Sudhi, K S (2017-03-23). "Kerala boy becomes father at 12". The Hindu. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  18. "Des femmes et des bébés". Jeune Afrique (in French). 2005-02-05. Retrieved 2025-09-09.
  19. Paschall, J.; Lyon, R. (1997). Hatches, Matches and Dispatches: Birth, Marriage and Burial Around the World. HarperCollins. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-00-638815-9. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
  20. Ploeg, Peter van der (2011-03-29). "Een risicovolle geboorte: meisje van 12 bevalt van dochter". NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 2025-09-24.
  21. (7 September 1929). Believe It or Not, Shreveport Times
  22. (6 September 1929). Believe It or Not, Edmonton Bulletin, p. 16
  23. (31 October 1931). One of the Illustrations from Ripley's New Book, Kansas City Star
  24. (8 March 1932). Between Ourselves, The Australian Woman's Mirror, p. 14
  25. McFarland, Kevin (1976). Incredible!. Hart Publishing Company. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-8055-1195-6. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
  26. Africa International (in French). Africa S.A. 1990. p. 75. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
  27. "Nejmladší matce na světě bylo pět let. Porodila před 75 roky". Czech News Agency (Aktuálně.cz) (in Czech). 2014-05-12. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
  28. Ripley, Robert LeRoy (1957). Ripley's Believe it Or Not: Wonder Book of Strange Facts. Universal Guild. Retrieved 2025-09-07.
  29. Lyall, Archibald (1936). The Future of Taboo in These Islands. K. Paul, Trench, Trubner. p. 114. Retrieved 2025-09-08.
  30. Fremy, Dominique (1995). Quid 1996. Robert Laffont. ISBN 978-2-221-08055-9. Retrieved 2025-09-07. (stating that Mum-Zi was "une Noire musulmane")
  31. "Meet The World's Youngest Granny". HuffPost. 2011-03-11. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  32. "La abuela más joven del mundo". Diario ABC (in Spanish). 2011-03-14. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  33. "SITUATION ANALYSIS OF ADOLESCENT PREGNANCY in Thailand: Synthesis Report 2015" (PDF). UNICEF. Retrieved 2026-04-11.
  34. "Declines in Births to Females Aged 10–14 in the United States, 2000–2016". CDC. April 2018. Retrieved 2026-04-11.