Girl, 11, will be Britain's youngest mother .

[tommy.irene]

Girl, 11, will be Britain's youngest mother

A girl is to become Britain's youngest mother after becoming pregnant at 11.

The girl smokes 20 cigarettes a day despite being eight months' pregnant. She conceived aged 11 when she lost her virginity to a boy of 15 on a drunken night out with friends.

The 15-year-old has since been charged with **bleep** by police, and is due to appear again at Edinburgh sheriff court on July 10.

Her 34-year-old mother, who gave birth to her youngest child eight months ago, said she was 'proud' of her daughter.

She will be 12 years and 8 months when she has the child next month. Jenny Teague, Britain's youngest mother until now, was a month older when she gave birth in 1997.

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The youngster, who lives near Edinburgh, says looking after her younger brothers has prepared her for motherhood.

But the girl admits she "panics and cries" when babies are unwell and does not feel able to bathe them.

The mother-to-be, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had unprotected sex with the teenage boy, who also cannot be identified, while drunk last August.

'Excited'

She told the Sun: "I didn't think I'd get pregnant because it was my first time. But I'm really excited and looking forward to being a mum.

"I can't wait to take the baby swimming and out for walks in the pram. I think I'll be able to cope as I've had lots of practice looking after my brothers.

"I know how to feed a baby its bottle and I can change nappies. But I panic and cry if they're sick and I don't like giving them a bath because I'm a bit frightened.

"It's good to know I'll have my mum here to help me if I need her."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-385968/Girl-11-Britains-youngest-mother.html#ixzz2lfH2vEsa 

[tommy.irene]

Concerned she might be pregnant, the girl visited a GP three times but tests proved negative. She learned the truth after buying a home-testing kit from a supermarket.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-385968/Girl-11-Britains-youngest-mother.html#ixzz2lfJShF1d   ...............................                                             I would change Doctors...

[tommy.irene]

Smoking at nine.

The girl, who has shoulder-length dark hair, began smoking at nine and started drinking tonic wine and vodka cocktails at ten. She claimed her cigarette habit was not harming the health of her unborn child.

[fionajohnston]

the sad thing apart from the girl being pregnant is the boy is getting charged ,he is a child also if anything should the girl not be charged with having sex with a minor also?

[bankhaunter]

I suppose everybody has the right to have no aspirations for themselves but to have so little aspiration for their children is rather sad.

I pity the children.

[millielilac]

It is a very depressing tale.....so very very sad ....

It is also puzzling as to how an eleven year old can afford to fund a smoking habit of 20 cigarettes a day ...and can also fund a drunken night out with friends too...

Luckily she is going to have the support of her mother so all is not lost ...............words really fail me ........

[papko]

Just disband the welfare state , without money , these people will have to work or do something to survive 

 Its only in Britain where a career choice as a loafer , is considered , some kind of distinction 

 We should copy countries like Nigeria and India in how we deal with our poor , if they have nothing in those countries , then thye must go to the rubbish ttip and find something to sell .

 Great for recycling , and great for a countries balance sheet .

[millielilac]

Although I cannot fully agree that the welfare state should be totally disbanded it has lost sight of its original purpose .....and should be rethought.

Something must be done but it is difficult to know what or how . Dependency on the state has been allowed to mushroom totally out of control and it will take a strong government to turn this particular tide...

[tommy.irene]

I though you wernt allowed to sell cigs to under 16 yearolds.... She has a great mother who let her smoke at 9 years old..

[bankhaunter]

What on earth has the welfare state got to do with it and since when was lack of money a good mode of contraception?

As for the money for cigarettes I suspect her mother may have something to do with that.

[**forum-decorum**]

It isn't just that the mother had no aspirations for themselves or their daughter, she clearly had no motherly instincts toward her child at all.

Children learn by example and the mother certainly hasn't been a good one, it doesn't look as though she has any worries at all about how having a child so young can harm her daughter mentally and physically.

I find it so sad though, that not one poster has brought up the subject of good morals, some of the blame can be laid at todays society for losing it's way where good morals and clean living is concerned. I know people will sigh and say oh here she goes again but, if God's principals were followed then this and many other unwanted pregnancy wouldn't have happened.

We live in a society so far removed from decent moral principals it really isn't suprising at all that this is happening.

If both those children had been taught correctly about all aspects of a good wholesome sexual relationship and taught about caring for each other rather than a quick fix for self gratification then at least they could have protected themselves. 

How was it that an 11 year old girl was going out clubbing and getting drunk? could even say that about the boy at 15.

So sad, so very sad.

[margaret*e]

On the subject of morals and principles , A 15year old boy going with a child of 11, can't have much of either .

[**forum-decorum**]

On the subject of morals and principles , A 15year old boy going with a child of 11, can't have much of either .

Agreed, but why hasn't he? because he hasn't been taught them that is why.

And......... have I been spelling principals wrong for all these years? I reckon I have been lol.

[margaret*e]

No mention of his family anywhere.

And yes, principle=morals.

Principal, main, first, chief.

[bankhaunter]

There are the morals which are innate in the very large majority of people, being part of the survival instinct, rules being necessary to achieve social harmony when living in groups and then there are the morals which are arbitary rules determined by certain groups to suit their own purposes.

I would suggest that it is the mother who is the more immoral for failing to teach the daughter what behaviour is acceptable to live within the group also necessary to ensure a better future for themselves and what is not.

[**caution**opinion_ahead]

The urge to reproduce is huge.  That is wired into us to ensure the survival of the species.  To override it in the name of what is sensible (for the future of all parties) takes some doing, especially in the young who have very immature frontal lobes and, therefore, far less resistance to impulse.

There will always be some teenage pregnancies.  It is not in the best interests of the young parents or the new child, but Mother Nature is concerned with the long term future of the species as a whole and not the welfare of its individual members.

Parenting and the moral climate (though this need not be linked to any religion; morals can stand happily on their own) have a great influence, of course.  In a society where having a child meant working for the resources to maintain that child there would, doubtless, be less children born (though the teen abortion rate might soar).

[*.*..lola..*.*]

Huh..surely the baby must be about 7 years old by now considering this story was first reported in 2006?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/4764417.stm

[cee-dee]

Well done Lola.

A lot of newspaper sites don't datemark their reports when first posted and no matter how old they are, the current date appears on them.

[tommy.irene]

I wonder what happened to the Boy.... He should be 22 by now..

[*.*..lola..*.*]

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@tommy.irene wrote:

I wonder what happened to the Boy.... He should be 22 by now..

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I can't find any other news articles about the boy, Tommy - maybe the charges were dropped in the end and rightly so IMO.

They were both children and both under the legal age to have sex.