Friday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
December 20,
DONALD DUCK
DONALD DUCK
"Cope 1940, Wali Diawy Prodoctions
White Red
11-13
DONALD DUCK
By Walt Disney
WAT DISNE
MAGAZINE. PAGE
THIS GIRL STARTLED
THE
WH
THY is this picture so interesting to the medical men? What is there in the photo- graph of a little girl, with what looks like her baby brother, and a doll?
The answer is that this is a picture of the youngest mother in the world, with her son, aged fifteen months.
Linda Medina, of Peru, is just six years old.
Her story is one of the medical mysteries of the world. She has just ar- rived in Chicago, where America's doctors will try to determine the astonish- ing facts of her case.
The baby boy, was born, on the operating table, in
a South American hos- pital, while sixty doctors and scientists watched the "miracle."
Lina Medina, half-In- dian, half - Spanish, was five years old and only three feet tall when she she gave birth to a perfect male child, weighing six pounds.
Nobody thought that mother or child would survive, but both have grown and flourish. ed and to-day are quite normal.
R
The natives of the mountain village where Lina Medina lived regard the event witchcraft, but doctors all over the world have watched this case with intense interest, for, of recent years, there has been a great deal of re- search into the ages at which women can bear children.
*
IN British countries child marrlages are not only dis- couraged. They are actually. forbidden by law. No girl may marry under the age of sixteen.
But the fact remains that even in civilised Britain girls under that age are having to face the responsibilitics of motherhood. It is a grave social problem-so far-reach- ing in its complications that a famous British woman sur- geon has investigated it in all its aspects.
•
She has just published the results of a soven-year in- vestigation into the cases of very young mothers,
Her findings are astonish- ing, and seem to upset many old theories and beliefs,
So much so, in fact, that the surgeon, Dr Letitia Fair field, who is senior medical officer of the general hospitals: department of the London County Council, states, in a paper in "The Lancet," the famous medical fournal, that she is no advocate of "such Voarly motherhood.
DOCTORS
She merely states the facts. And they certainly tend to negative the common iden that very early motherhood may stunt the growth, and even affect the .sanity of a girl.
Dr Fairfield's probe into this question. lasted from 1931 to 1938. She had access' to 133,000 births in a group of twenty-four London mater- nity hospitals.
Of these, seventy-four were mothers between the ages of thirteen and sixteen.
Dr Fairfield examined care- fully each of these cases where, to quote her own words, "nature had been al- lowed to take its course."
The youngest mother was thirteen years
and, three months at the time of hor confinement. There were no girls aged twelve, and authen- licated cases at this age are, apparently, extremely rare..
Only two are known during the past thirty years.
When Lina Medina's child was born the doctors searched back in the records and dis- covered that eight was the earliest age known to medical science,
IN the seventy-four cases
surveyed by Dr Fairfield all the mothers made a good recovery, and fow had any dimculty
Lina Medina, six-year- old mother of a fifteen- month-old baby boy, ar- riving in Chicago. The astonishing casa of the world's youngest mother is arousing interest In youthful mothers among doctors. The results of recent research, are given hore, by----
HAYWOOD LAWSON
"The general impression, re- corded for what it is worth, Is that these girls tako the ordeal very well. The case records showed not a single reference to unusual anxiety, depression or
in- stability."
nervous
Only one of the seventy- four girls was mentally de- ficient. Many are described as irresponsible and precocious children who had been run- ning wild.
The social background bearing in mind that each case implies an offence against the lawwas varied, and to quote the doctor, "obscure and Linged with moral squa- lor"
THE most amazing case
brought to light by Dr Fairfield's investigation was the story of the youngest mother in London, probably the youngest in Britain.
She was thirteen years and three months. And the al- leged father was only thir- teen.
Of his paternity there can- not be complete certainty, but all facts seemed to prove it, and the boy himself had, it seems, no doubt at all, for he even went so far as to bor- row his older brother's long trousers and bowler hat, in order to visit his child, in proper style.
THE child of this union was
six pounds in weight when born, had a cleft palate, but was otherwise quite normal and healthy.
The babies, a matter of fact, seemed do less well
than the mot.
The average Weight of the Beventy-four was six pounds fourteen ounces, which is less than normal birth weight for children in Britain to-day.
Two babies were stillborn, three died at birth, five had deformities of various kinds.
This tends to suggest that there may be a special liability to deformities in the children of very young-mothers, saya- Dr Fairfield's report.
On the medical and surgical uspects of these young mothers the investigation shows that previous fears about very early childbirth may need to be revised.
Doctors have been sur- prised to learn that nrrival of these babies was very, normal, surgical assistance being only very slightly over the rate that is usual in all the hos pitals concerned,
The labours were, with few exceptions, short and easy to an unusual degree, and com- plications, especially in what doctors term the third stage of a birth, were rare.
No case of mental or ner- vous breakdown on the part of any of the seventy-four mothers has been traced to date.
DR
Fairfield records that in the sixty-four cases where the method of feeding was noted, fifty-eight babies were breast-fed wholly or in part at the time of leaving the hospital.
minutes or less. No instance of serious damage was noted.
طباعة.
FOLLOWING Dr Fairfield's
investigations, the doctors of Britain, and America are watching the strange case of six-year-old Lina Medina with great interest.
On the question of who is the father of her baby son' there is still profound my- stery.
Lina's mother, Donna Loza, a stolid peasant of the Andes, said at the time that she bc- loved that Lina was bitten by a snake called "Tiracha," which, according to Indian legend, holds strange power over women, sometimes creep- ing up on them and sinking its fangs into them as they sleep in the open air.
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Lina often slept in the open air in her mountain village, ›
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TER father also has HE
theory. He says that there is a pool up in the mountains called "the pool of birth." Those who bathe in it find the. power to create new life.
Lina used to bathe in this pool.
The doctors in Chicago, who have been waiting to see Lina Medina for a year, will try to solve the mystery of a birthi that has baffled the medical world.
AFTER WHICH POOR LITTLE LINA MAY GO ON TOUR IN A SIDE-SHOW.
They Went To Work
By Water
LONDON River, which has served the city ill as a guide to raiders, has shown that it can still be of use to Londoners.
On its grey waters they went to work.
From Woolwich to Westmins- ter, workers turned up in their hundreds for the first boats.
The steamboats, still in the livery in which they used to chug up and lown the river with pleasure seekers, took anything from one to two hours or the complete voyage with Inter- nediate stops.
+
All Filled
It cost ninepence for return work- icket, or sevenpence for a
nan's return,
Air raid warnings did not stop hem. Just as trains do, they carried on.
City
More than one-third of these very youthful mothers surprised the doctors by de- livering their babies in less than twelve hours, a remark- able record for first births,
Each vessel accommodates between 160 and 250 people, and all were well which seldom take less than
Billed, eighteen hours,
Many
Look advantage of the For example, a young pro-availability of reliway seasons and fossional dancer, aged fifteen, is and tram return tickets to tako
this alternative route.: had a baby weighing Bib. 14oz. after a labour of 3. hours, 45 minutes, the second stage lasting only 1 hour 15 minuted in thi
workers, soldiers, sailors, ali. used, this now method of transport, which has been devised to lighten the load of ordinary land communt. cations from the eastern suburb to London,
The third stage was in all cases completed in thirty minutes or less without any aid or interference..... In fifty- seven out of the saventy-thred cases, in which there, were time records, the period in the third stage was fifteen
The boats ran. at 40-minute in- ervals. The service will be, speeded up to one every 20 minutes."
Relieves Boredom
One passenger remembered the old London County Council steamers on the river
"Pye always 'thought it would be sien to see them back again," he said. "But it's odd that, I should take war to bring 'em out again: Si, adds a new zest to the boring process of getting to work.”
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New Year's Resolution
The SIMPLEST and SPEEDIEST way YOU can help WIN THE WAR is to give regular CASH DONATIONS to the Government.
Can You Afford $100 per month? Can You Afford $10 per month? Can You Afford $1
NO SUM TOO LARGE.
per month?
NO SUM TOO SMALL Fill in the form below and HELP WIN THE WAR.
Donations to 19-12-40: $1,499,638.26 Remitted to London: £92,389.19.6d.
Hongkong, December
The Manager,
Sir,
1940.
Bank,!
Hongkong.
Commencing 2nd.' January, 1941, and until further notice, please transfer the sum of $....... Monthly to "War Fund, South China Morning Post Ltd." and debit my current account.
Yours faithfully,
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