14 year old pregnant

purplejellybean ↓

Today at 1:02 am

I read online that a 14 year old member from Lev Tahor gave birth. I cant stop thinking about this. I cant wrap my head around it. Please please tell me its an allegation and is fake news. How can this even be? In what planet can a 14 year old girl handle the pain of giving birth. Is this the first time this happened in this group? Im not here to discuss the mental state of this group. I just want to know if this is even true and if so does any one help her take care of the baby? Can one adopt the baby?

singleagain

Today at 5:18 am

purplejellybean wrote:

In what planet can a 14 year old girl handle the pain of giving birth.

Unfortunately, the answer to your question is: planet Earth.

When I googled "how many 14 year old have birth in the last year"

I saw via the Google AI that the birth rate in America for 10-14 year olds is declining.

But I scrolled a bit more and saw that unfortunately, in some parts of the world that age range is still very high.

https://ourworldindata.org/gra.....ility

Note I didn't look to see if the statics for getting pregnant are any higher, and why that might be. Just because a girl gets pregnant doesn't mean she carries to term, for either reasons of abortion or miscarriage. That data might not be complete bc there might be girls who didn't tell anyone about the pregnancy and managed to end it without adult involvement.

Other questions to ask

1) is this consentul behavior with peers of similar age and then youthful stupidity?
2) is this an actual attempt to get pregnant with boyfriend of similar ages?
3) is this bc young girls are being groomed, by predators, incense/ rape, and possibly too afraid to tell someone until she is giving birth?
4) is this is unfortunate outcome of child relations slavery and/or child brides ?

BadTichelDay

Today at 7:57 am

I'm absolutely not defending this, but 150 - 200 years ago, even Jews in Eastern Europe got married at age 14-15. I've got a beautiful book called the Rebbe's Daughter, it's autobiographical, gleaned from a diary, from a chasidish court at the beginning of the 20th century. She was going to get married at 14 to a 15 year old and knew it well in advance.
I know in person a Jew of Yemenite origin here in Israel whose grandmother got married at age 6 (six). That was done because she was an orphan and in danger of being taken by the authorities and put into an Islamic institutuion. Being married protected her and she could stay among Jews. She lived in her husband's family clan household as a child until she was in her early teens and the marriage was - well, consummated.

In today's Western World we don't do it that way. Girls get an education and are allowed to grow up fully and find themselves before marrying, which is absolutely a good thing. But to be realistic, for a lot of human history it was just not so.

synthy ↓

Today at 8:26 am

purplejellybean wrote:

Im not defending it but I’ve seen plenty of photos of 16 teen girls in Africa with 3 kids of their own, so planet earth? But yeah the report from lev tahor shook me more because I have a 14 year old sister and it hits closer to home.

Seashell ↓

Today at 10:17 am

purplejellybean wrote:

In Levi Tahor that the norm unfortunately. Forced marriages with girls 12-14 to boy or men way older then them. Just one part of the horrific abuse going on there.

gootlfriends

Today at 10:25 am

synthy wrote:

Is there anything in their lifestyle that causes earlier puberty? Most girls I know first get their period at 14.

First of all most girls in America get their period between 11 and 13. Mostly because of diet. Girls who get it later are generally underweight. If a girl starts at 11 or 12 she can have a baby at 12 or 13. Its not recommended because their bodies are not finished developing. I say this as a mother of a 13 year old who is still growing.

↑ synthy

Today at 10:33 am

gootlfriends wrote:

First of all most girls in America get their period between 11 and 13. Mostly because of diet. Girls who get it later are generally underweight. If a girl starts at 11 or 12 she can have a baby at 12 or 13. It’s not recommended because their bodies are not finished developing. I say this as a mother of a 13 year old who is still growing.

I got mine at 11 and it was a lot earlier all of my friends. 13-14 seemed average.

Just One

Today at 10:47 am

synthy wrote:

Is there anything in their lifestyle that causes earlier puberty? Most girls I know first get their period at 14.

The age of bas mitzvah was set at 12 since that's the average age that girls hit puberty.
12 has been the average age of puberty for thousands of years and continues to be the average age today.

(Statistically, an average of 12 means that some girls will get it earlier than that and others later with the average evening out to around 12. So 14, while within normal, is later than the average.)

Ema of 5

Today at 10:58 am

BadTichelDay wrote:

My friend’s Yemenite grandmother got married at 12, and she said that was very common at the time.

↑ purplejellybean

Today at 1:13 pm

meeze wrote:

Same with my grandparents also from yemen

They get married but did they have children at that age as well? In the book " The youngest Bride" even though raizele got married she did not have children.
Im curious HOW they raise a child at that age? Do these children go for adoption? I dont even think that is a better alternative as its not easy to place frum children. Hashem should watch all his children.

rkay

Today at 1:15 pm

purplejellybean wrote:

She got married but did not actually live with her husband until she turned 18, so of course she didn't have children.

keym

Today at 1:19 pm

Did you ever read The Pomegranate Pendant?
Great book. And historically accurate.

The main character married at 14 to an 18 year old. The two of them moved to EY alone. She had a baby at 15, 2 more kids and was widowed by 19.

She also describes her friend a year younger at 13, already a mother, also moving from Yemen to EY.

Story is historical fiction from 1880s.