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Friday 15 February 2013

Nine-Year-Old Girl Who Gave Birth In Mexico Will Never Have Another Child After Doctors Sterilize Her Against Her Mother's Wishes

The nine-year-old girl who gave birth in Mexico will never have another child after she was sterilized by the doctors who delivered her baby - against her family's wishes, it was revealed today.
The youngster was given the procedure following the shock delivery without the consent of her own mother.
She has now reported the Zoquipan Hospital in Guadalajara to the local human rights commission which is investigating.
'Abuse': The girl's stepfather (left) has been accused of sleeping in the same bed and beating the nine-year-old mother as her own mother (right) failed to stop it. They are pictured with another relative and his baby More pictures after the cut......

'Sex worker': Gloria, pictured in her younger years, has been accused by neighbours of working as a prostitute
'Sex worker': the girl's mother, pictured in her younger years, has been accused by neighbours of working as a prostitute
The development came as MailOnline obtained the first pictures of her mother and stepfather, who live in a poor suburb of Guadalajara called Colonial Los Olivos.
MailOnline is not naming them to protect the child's identity.
Last night the family - and the newborn baby girl named by a local newspaper as Maria de Los Angeles - fled their 7ft by 25ft breeze block home in a taxi just hours before police and the local mayor showed up to speak with them.
Lurid claims have been made by neighbours against the stepfather, including that he has abused one of his own biological daughters and used to beat Dafne and share a bath with her.
Dafne's baby was born on January 27 in Zoquipan Hospital, in Zapopan, Mexico's western Jalisco state weighting 5.95lbs.
Dafne was eight at the time she got pregnant but she didn't realize she was expecting until she was seven months gone.
According to Guadalajara's Mural newspaper, the girl's mother - who can't read or write - didn't even think that it was a crime that somebody so young having sex could be a criminal offence until she turned up at the hospital with her daughter in labour.
The father was at first thought to be Dafne's boyfriend who may be aged between 15 and 17.
But DNA testing is being carried out among all of her male relatives to confirm who is the dad amid extraordinary claims that the stepfather may even be the father.
The respected El Occidental newspaper said that Dafne could have been raped multiple times over several months but claimed that it was never violent.
It also claimed that after seven months of the pregnancy when everyone found out her boyfriend he asked her to run away with him, but she refused. The authorities are hunting him after he fled following the birth.
Neighbours in Colonial los Olivos told MailOnline that they were relieved that the stepfather, in his mid 40s, had left even if it was only for a short time.
They said he used to beat Dafne and sometimes their rows would spill out into the street where he would continue to hit her.
They also claimed he slept in the same bed as her and shared a bath and that he was abusing her just as he did his biological daughter, for which they claim he had spent time in jail.
Bad name: Neighbours who claim they witnessed Dafne being beaten by her stepfather in this street said they were glad the family had fled
Bad name: Neighbours who claim they witnessed Dafne being beaten by her stepfather in this street said they were glad the family had fled
A relative of the stepfather told MailOnline: 'What he has done has shamed our family.
'I don't know why the girl's mother lets him carry on the way he has. They're both liars and I think it's terrible what has happened.
'Dafne is a child. She's just a child. The girl's mother is in love with him so she protects him, and this is what happens'.
Dafne has been dubbed 'baby mother' by Mexican newspapers, a pun on the term usually used to refer to the mother of a child, and not the fact she is still a youngster herself.
She has 10 brothers and sisters and is said to be doing well and happy that the birth is over.
Dafne is also the 'caretaker' of her family - she does not go to school, instead spending all day in her home cooking and only venturing out to go to the shops.
Blame game: Doctors at the hospital where Maria was born alerted authorities to the case - but the nine-year-old's mother has responded by complaining they sterilised her daughter against their wishes
Blame game: Doctors at the hospital where Maria was born alerted authorities to the case - but the nine-year-old's mother has responded by complaining they sterilised her daughter against their wishes
Neighbours said on the rare occasions they saw her outside she sometimes was only wearing a towel.
They also claim that the girl's mother, in her early 40s, works as a prostitute and was trying to recruit Dafne to becoming a sex worker too.
Metro newspaper reported that they fear that she may have AIDS which she passed on to Dafne, and therefore on her baby too.
In addition, there are fears there may be long lasting consequences to Dafne's body because of the hormone imbalances brought about by having a child so young.
the girl's mother reported the hospital to the Jalisco Human Rights Commission but only appears to have done so after doctors notified local prosecutors about the birth.
 
Under Mexican law it is a crime to have sex with anyone under 15, even if they give consent.
The hospital had not been tracking her case and only became aware when Dafne was brought in about to give birth, surrounded by anxious family members.
Jorge Villasenor, from the state prosectors' office, said: 'We are looking for the young man (the boyfriend) to get his story because she does not understand what has happened.
'This is a rape or child sex abuse case.'
'Her parents work all day and were not watching after her,' said Lino Ginzalez Corona, spokesperson at Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office, 'and therefore didn’t realize what was about to happen.'
The girl was given a C-Section due to her age and both girls were released from the hospital over the weekend.
Last year, in Zopopan Hospital, around 25 percent of the pregnancies were among teens.
In an ironic twist, Dafne only got her own birth certificate a year and two months ago when she tried to go to school and it was requested of her.
Poor: The girl lived with her mother and stepfather and 10 siblings in a poverty stricken village an hour's drive away from where the baby was born on the outskirts of Guadalajara
Remote: The town where the family live is an hour's drive south from Guadalajara city
Neighbours described Dafne as 'kind and very sweet' and said she looked much older than nine, and that they were shocked to hear her real age.
A woman who lives next door, in her early 20s, said that Dafne was about 4ft tall, which is big for her age, with a light complexion and long blonde hair which goes past her shoulders.
They thought she was 15 until they read in the paper that she is really nine.
Neighbours said that the claims that the stepfather slept with Dafne and bathed with her came from one of Dafne's sisters when she visited a while ago.
Colonial los Olivos is a run down suburb known as a 'fraccionamiento', which means compound, and is 25 miles south of Guadalajara.
Those who do work do manual labour and survive on $100 a month in homes that cost as little as a few hundreds of dollars to throw together. Teenage pregnancy rates are high, as is crime and litter blows along the hot, dusty streets.
Theft is so common that locals joke that  'thieves can take away your underwear without taking your trousers'.
In the compound there is not even an ATM although there are many street traders selling food and farmers selling fruit and vegetables.
Dafne's house is located on a block next to the site where the weekly market takes place. 
The light green paint is peeling and the front garden is overgrown whilst a piece of fabric hangs from the roof over the front door.
When MailOnline knocked at the door there was no answer and the curtains had been pulled closed.

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