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DONALD DUCK
Cope, 1963, Walz Dienry Producti Works Richa Rawried,
DONALD
DUCK
Friday,
HONGKONG TELEGRAPH
December 20, 1940.
By Walt
Disney
DONALD DUCK
11-13
uded by King Prayers Bybelicate,
DISNE
MAGAZINE · PAGE.
THIS THE
WHY 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.
The natives of the mountain village where Lina Medina lived regard the event as 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. marriages 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 responsibilities of motherhood. It is a grave social problem-so far-reach- ingin its_complications that n famous British woman sur- geon has investigated it in all its aspects.
She has just published the ́results of a seven-year in-
vestigation into the cases of
•
STARTLED
GIRL 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 Banity of a girl.
Dr. Fairfield's probe into this question Insted 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 thrice months at the time of her confinement. There were no girls aged twelve, and authen- ticated cases at this age are, apparently, extremely rare,
Only two are known during
very young mothers tonish the past thirty years.
Hor findings are
ing and scom to upset many old theories and beliefs.
So much so, In fact, that the surgeon, Dr-Letitia Fair fold, who is acnior medical oficer of the general hospitals department of the London County Council, states, in a "paper" in: """The Lancet,” the famous medical journal, that sho is no advocate of such "early motherhood.
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 few had any difficulty.
Lina Medina, six-year- old mother of a fifteen- month-old baby, boy, ar- riving in Chicago. The astonishing caso of the world's youngest mother is arousing interest in youthful, mothers among doctors. The results of recent research are given here, by-
HAYWOOD
LAWSON
"The general impression, re- corded for what it is worth, is that these girls take. the ordeal very well. The caso records showed not a single, reference to unusual anxiety, depression or nervous in- stability."
Only one of the seventy- four girls was mentally do ficient. Many are described as irresponsible and precocious children who had been run- ping wild
The social background--- bearing in mind, that each Caso Implies an offence against the law was varied and to quote the doctor, "obscure and tinged 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.
Sho 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, as a matter of fact, seemed to do less well than the mothers."
The average weight of the seventy-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, says" Dr Fairfield's report.
On the medical and surgical aspects 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 arrival 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 fow 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 bables were breast-fed wholly or in part at the time of leaving the hospital.
More than one-third of these very youthful mothers surprised the doctors by de livering their babies in leas than twelve hours, a remark abla record for first births, which seldom take less than eighteen hours.
minutes or less. No instance of serious damage was noted.
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 be lieved 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.
Lina often slept in the open air in her mountain village.
*
HER father also has
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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 birth 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 ralders, 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 ateamboats, still in the livery In which they used to chug up and down the river with pleasure seekers, took anything from one to two hours for the complete voyage with inter- mediate stops.
All Filled:
It cost ninepence for ปี return ticket, or sevenpence for a work- man's.return.
Air rald warnings did not stop hem. Just as trains do, they carried
on.
City workers, mldiers, sallors, all used this new method of transport, which has been; dovised to lighten the load of ordinary' laid communi- London. cations from the eastern suburbs to
Each vessel accommodates between 160 and 250 people, and all were well alled For example, a young pro-vallable of railway seasons and people took advantage of the fessional dancer, aged fifteen.. his and tram return tickels to take 144oz, after a labour of B The boats ron at 40-minute in- had a baby weighing Blb this alternative route, hours 45 minutes, the second tervals. The service will be speeded
20 minutes. stago lasting only 1 hour 15 up to one every minutes.
Relieves Boredom
„The third stage was in all'
to was cases completed in thirty minutes or less, without any
One passenger remembered the old London County Council steamers, on' the river
afce to see them back again,” he said. "But it's odd that it should take war to bring 'em out again!: Sill
aid or interference. In fiftyvo slways thought it would be seven out of the seventy-three cases. In which there were time records, the period in the third stage was fifteen
It adds a new zest to the boring process of getting to: work.”
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Make a
No
41
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
per month?
NO SUM TOO LARGE.
NO SUM TOO SMALL. Fill in the form below and HELP WIN THE WAR.
Donations to 19-12-40: $1,499,638.26,
Romitted to London: £92.389.19.64.
Hongkong. December
1940.
The Manager,
Sir,
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,
1
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