Teen learned she was pregnant at the delivery room
Could one ever be pregnant without knowing it? Apparently this Swiss teenager didn’t. Just before Christmas, the 13-year-old girl suffered from severe abdominal pains at school and was rushed to the hospital. School authorities thought it was acute appendicitis. The doctors came up with another diagnosis – labor pains. The girl gave birth to a healthy baby, much to the surprise of everybody, including the brand-new mother herself. It seems that nobody knew, not her, not her parents, not her friends, not her teachers. The girl just started the first year of secondary school in autumn. Her boyfriend, and most likely the father, is a boy of the same age in the same class. This means the relationship started when they were still in their last year of primary school.
The little alpine country of Switzerland was shocked at this event. Although teen pregnancies do happen here, the rate is very low (122 cases last year, they said) and definitely not considered as problematic as in the UK, record holder in Europe in terms of teen pregnancy rates. This brought up the question- How could no one have known, not even the teen herself?
That question has also brought up the debate about the effectiveness of sexual education in primary schools. Some politicians think that sex education should start even earlier, long before the girls get their first period.
Now, I ask you. How can one be pregnant and not notice? At what age should children be informed about sex and procreation?
And the most difficult of all: How do you go about telling your kids?
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