Pregnant at just 11 !!!!

[biglips]

WTF!!!

\link{http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17067634%26method=full%26siteid=94762%26headline=pregnant%2d%2d%2d%2dat%2djust%2d11-name_page.html\Shes making it all sounds so easy to look after a baby! - eh!!!}

Waterfalls - I had a young girl of same age knocking on my door handing out Ann Summers catalogues!!

I dont think that the girl should be forced to have a termination or for that matter have it taken away.
Thats not to say I dont think its appalling, but you have to remember that the things that this little girl is and has been doing is through no fault of her own but her parent/s for not teaching her what is right, what is wrong, and what could be potentially dangerous to her. Our children lead by example so although this girl will need, and no doubt will get, help and guidence to being a good mother, it surley should be granny herself that gets the true parenting course from ss to ensure none of her other children end up also ruining their childhood.

Going back to the history thing, yes this has probably been an isssue for many hundreds of years, though the difference that noone has yet pointed out is that hundreds of years ago we didnt have the amazing contraception methods that we do have today. If a child/young person is old enough to know about sex then they are old enough to know how to prevent pregnancy and std's all of which parents should be responsible for informing thier children of. Though we know that this will never happen as alot of parents still feel that this is the education departments resposability, and we are also still a very prude society, and sex is still and probably always will be a very taboo subject.

the thing is i can't understand what 11 year old girl even thinks about having sex? i certainly didn't!

I thought that the reason that it was in the papers was because the father (at 15) was being prosecuted by the police? I think that although a 15 year old is also very young and probably stupid, there is something wrong with a 15 year old and an 11 year old having sex, and that an element of coercion at the very least (especially if she was drunk) was going on - four years at that age is a huge age gap. I work for a primary care trust, and we collect data on teenage pregnancies (it is a performance requirement). I work in inner London and there are quite a few - but teenage is under 19, so many of those pregnancies are to older girls, and many are both planned and wanted. The numbers of very young girls that get pregnant are very small - but last year I know that two ten year olds got pregnant.

That's so sad and so scarey.

I hope that the media coverage will mean that she gets as much support and POSITIVE intervention as possible.

I can't comprehend an 11 year old being pregnant.

I think a policy of having babies adopted if the mother is under 16 would be good!

Before anyone goes on, my sister gave birth at 16, her son had his first child at 19.....it's a revolving circle and to be honest, these people end up being supported by welfare.

My sister really didn't live at all, she existed and her son didn't get much out of it....

Put these children up for adoption, I am adopted and after finding out my birth family's history I can understand.

I should have added, 'how many under 16's would get pg if this was law.

I think it is terribly sad, tragic but there's a bit too much vitriol here for my liking.

The mother is proud of her daughter for keeping the child, not necessarily for getting pregnant. In any case what else is she supposed to say - my daughter is a slut? Of course she is going to put a brave face on it.

Secondly I know a lovely family whose daughter went wild, completely out of control, at 13, the other children were perfectly well behaved. If their parenting was at fault is it hard to see where. We aren't in a position to judge the mother on so little information.

Physically and physiologically an 11 year old is far too young to be pregnant, there are dangers. But psychologically she might be better at parenting than a 16 year old who will probably have become more self-centred by then.

I feel sorry for the 15 year old boy. Young teenage girls gravitate towards boys a few years older, they always have, always will and often look older than their years. Having sex with a 11 year old makes him a criminal, if she had been 16 he would have been the victim. Where is the sense in that?

UCM, I have to day that I totally and utterly disagree.

The forced seperation of a mother and baby is a totally unethical, deeply cruel, harrowing intervention that society has NO RIGHT to make unless in exceptional circumstances such as proven abuse when all else has failed.

The life-long trauma for mothers (and sometimes the children) of these forced seperations in well documented.

She may be a child herself, she may end up a hopeless mother but she has still felt that baby grown inside her, thought about it a hundread times a day and will soon experience child birth and look her baby in the eye for the first time. The emotions and bonds of this experience are the same for a 12 year old or a 40 year old.

Maybe a high degree of help and support as default for these young mums but forced seperation, totally and utterly enethical and cruel.

And yes, they WOULD still get pregnant.

I agree with you CP, although I am loath to get involved in this debate because I don't like the way it has gone at all. Your point that the separation of mother and child is a very serious and terrible measure is absolutely right in my opinion. I can't see any reason which this child should be put through further pain and trauma by having her baby taken away unless no other solution can be found, which I believe it can. If she survives the pregnancy and birth

Oh thank goodness for a humane and compassionate voice. Spot on cheeseypeas.

I agree, CP.

She could be a grandma herself at 24 if her daughter takes after her!

I wouldn't sugest that the girl has the baby taken away but I do hope that she gets lots of support....and her mother also needs lots of support and parenting classes. I hope that the girl isn't just going to be supported by the soon to be grandmother who obviously has a very poor grasp on what constitutes appropriate parenting.

While I agree that the mother would hardly go to the press and say 'my girl is a slut'. basic standerds would make most of us keep our mouthes shut. If my 11 year old was pg , I awould be so ashamed of myself I would keep my mouth shut.

this is obviously not the norm for 11yo, but there were several girls at my school who were drinking, shagging, smoking etc at 11 or 12, generally with older boys. It is not that unusual .

My mum used to be a teacher and taught a girl who got pg at 12. The father was 18 and got stabbed to death in a fight during the pg. The girl's mother let her spend a night watching over his body in the mortuary .

it says in the mirror today that she told the boy she was 16, it was a party full of 16 year olds, she looked 16 why would he doubt her, now he has been charged with rape.

What I can't wrap my head around is how an 11 year old was in a party full of 16 year olds. How she started drinking at 10. 10 where the hell was her mother? She started smoking at 9.

My dd is 9....she still asked if she can get friut from the fruit bowl. (i don't insist onthis you understand ) None of her friends are allowed to wander the streets. Who lets their 11 year old get pissed n parties. What on earth are their mother's thinking?

I don't think the baby should be taken off her. However, I have read a suggestion that both of them may be taken into care - perhaps they'd have a better chance in a dedicated support setting than in a chaotic house full of other kids with a mother who seems unable to look out for them adequately.

the article in the mirror wasn't all that kind towards the mother, this is their opinion

PICTURES THAT SHAME US ALL
VOICE OF THE SUNDAY Mirror
THE pictures we print today of Britain's youngest mother-to-be are truly terrible. Chain-smoking, TV remote control in hand and a mum in the next room smoking heroin.

Human degradation doesn't come more shocking than this. But once over the horror it is time to ask questions. This 11-year-old girl was drunk when she became pregnant during a one-night stand. Her mother has six children by three different fathers.

How can the family not have come under the care of social services? Why is such a young girl allowed to live in such appalling circumstances? How can her mother still be allowed to be in charge of six young children?

It is incomprehensible that such a sordid existence can still be found in a rich country with one of the best social service frameworks in the world. These pictures, quite simply, demean Britain.

what made me laugh was she knew how to take care of a child/baby cos she has wiht her brothers - wtf it's totally differnet when a tiny baby is reliant on u and u alone to decide what's best for it.

Another failing for Lothians social services. We now have Caleb Ness, sent home to live w/his mother, known as an active heroin user - he was murdered by his mother's junkie partner at 11 weeks. A 2-year-old boy who died after drinking his parents' methadone in Tranent, East Lothian. 4-year-old Michael Garrity, found alive in an Edinburgh flat after his mother, again a known heroin user who had a long history (which authorities knew about) died of a drug overdose some 3 to 6 weeks previously.

They go after the WRONG people and leave kids living with known, active heroin users.

WTF.

If this mother was known as a user she should have had those kids taken off her ages ago!

I've never done this before and I've even expressed annoyance with others doing it. This thread, and the tabloid coverage of the subject has horrified me into saying ...

PARP

I will not be back.

It was a good story for the Sun to take and of course it's going to be written up to press all the most knee jerk buttons..but what she and her family should be getting is support and nurturing advice, help to give up smoking, to make friends her own age, to continue education and to meet young mothers who have turned their lives around from this.

It makes a better story if she was a habitual drunk and her mum has a series of shitty relationships but she has been unlucky and maybe as a consequence of early puberty has had the hormones pumping before she was really mature enough and been drawn in to wanting a boyfriend.

It's an indictment of the society we live in that so many people still live in such deprived circumstances.

Re her parading her dd in front of the cameras. Is she? Is there any way of avoiding the tabloids once they've got hold of your story, even if you have bodyguards and a press officer, let alone if you're dirt-poor on an estate. Has she sold her story? If she's that poor, it's pretty obvious that she would if someone offered her money for it, no?