Young Mom Allegedly Gives Birth At 11 Years Old, Turns Out Her Age Had Been Misrecorded

Young mom’s misrecorded paper showed she gave birth at 11 years old

A few days ago, a strange and frankly, quite concerning story found its way to several Vietnamese news sites, prompting much discussion from readers. As many reports put it, a mom allegedly gave birth to a child when she was only 11 years old.

After more information about the case, it turned out the mom was only 11 years old on paper. In actual, biological age, she was several years older.

Here’s how the story plays out.

The mom’s personal papers showed she was 11 years old

The baby’s birth was difficult, but both mother and child are now safe
Image credit: Tuổi Trẻ

On 12th October, the Medical Center of Hướng Hóa District, Quảng Tri Province reported on a peculiar baby delivery case.

The birth was difficult, and a C-section was required. Thankfully, at the end of the day, both mother and child made it through safe and sound.

What piqued interest, however, was that according to several reports, the personal papers of the mom showed she was born in 2010, meaning she was only 11 years old when she gave birth to her baby.

This one particular detail left many people in bewilderment, turning the story into a viral topic on several Vietnamese online forums.

Rest assured that no child abuse was at work here. As follow-up reports later cleared up, the mother’s papers simply got her date of birth wrong.

The mother’s date of birth was misrecorded

As it turned out, the young mother was orphaned as a child and grew up in the care of her uncle, who didn’t register her birth certificate until years after she was born. When the man finally did, he provided the wrong information to the relevant authorities.

Details on why this misunderstanding came to be varied between different reports. According To Người Lao Động, when registering for his niece’s birth certificate, the uncle might have intended to put her year of birth as 2001, but mistakenly wrote 2010 in the registration form instead. Dân Trí says he might have made this mistake because he couldn’t read and write very well.

Vietnamnet, on the other hand, claims that since the woman never got an education earlier in her life, her uncle deliberately wanted to make her appear younger on paper so that schools would be more willing to accept her.

We’re glad the mother and her baby is safe

While the misunderstandings were cleared up and we are relieved that no immoral conduct was at work, the incident did remind many people that there are many disadvantaged women who were denied a chance at education and instead got married with kids too early. Indeed, such instances are hardly uncommon in more secluded parts of Vietnam.

However, that is a topic for another day. For now, we’re just happy that the woman and her baby are in stable conditions.

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Cover image adapted from Tuổi Trẻ

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