9-Year-Old Gives Birth to Healthy 6-Pound Baby -- Police Search for 17-Year-Old Man Who May Have Raped Her

The 9-year-old reportedly gave birth at Zoquipan Hospital. (Photo: Zoquipan Hospital/Facebook)

A 9-year-old girl in Mexico reportedly gave birth to a nearly 6 pound baby girl Jan. 27, and police are on the hunt for a 17-year-old who might have fathered the child as a result of rape, AFP reported authorities speculating.

"We are looking for the young man to get his story because she does not understand what has happened. This is a rape or child sex abuse case," Jorge Villasenor with the state prosecutors' office said according to AFP.

ABC News reported further Lino Ginzalez Corona, a spokesperson at the Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office, saying the girl, identified only as Dafne,  described relationship with the father as loving and that they were dating. But given her age, authorities don't know how accurate this account is and they're “still open to the possibility of rape or child sex abuse.”

Here's more from Corona regarding the unusual situation:

“She did not realize that she was pregnant until the seventh month,” said Corona. Her boyfriend suggested Dafne move in with him and to raise the child together but when the young mother refused, her boyfriend “decided to leave town two months ago,” says Corona.

[...]

Dafne, who is one of 11 children, lives in Ixtlahuacan de los Membrillos, a poverty-stricken neighborhood 25 miles south of Guadalajara. “Her parents work all day and were not watching after her,” says Corona, “and therefore didn’t realize what was about to happen.”

ABC reported that Dafne delivered the baby through a C-section. According to the National Institutes of Health, the general age for females to begin their menstrual cycle and therefore be able to bear children is around 12 years old.

Dafne is among the youngest women to deliver a child, but certainly not the only one. A 1939 Time article reported a Peruvian girl at age 5 becoming pregnant. Just last year, a 10-year-old Columbian girl gave birth. A number of other young births have been reported over the years.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com. 

(H/T: Daily Mail)