i loved once @ Tuesday, March 06, 2007
WHAT would a 9-year-old girl know about pregnancy? After all, she's still a child herself. At 9, when all she should fret about was her schoolwork, Jane (not her real name) was already grappling with pregnancy, labour pains and yes, morning sickness.
You see, this girl was in Primary Three when she was made pregnant by her boyfriend from the same primary school back in 2004.
Yes, she was just 9 years old, a Primary Three student in a school here in Singapore, according to a Tamil Murasu report on Sunday.
And by the time her parents found out, it was already too late for her to abort the baby.
The shocking case was mentioned during a seminar about youth relationships organised by Tamil cultural group Narpani Peravai and Republic Polytechnic last Saturday.
Jane, the girl, was an early puberty case, and had already started menstruating when she was eight, said counsellor Sheena Jebal from Nulife Care & Counselling Services to Tamil Murasu.
An early developer, she was about 1.3m tall and quite big-size for a girl her age.
She met her boyfriend in school and they had sex frequently at the girl's house, which was a private property.
All this time, the children's parents never suspected a thing.
The girl's parents were out and working most of the time.
Jane is the only girl in the family.
And when she started gaining weight and had morning sickness, she didn't suspect that she was pregnant.
She just thought she was sick.
Her family, teachers and friends also didn't suspect anything amiss, and thought she was just putting on weight.
When Jane was in school, her blouse was tucked out so no one could tell if she was pregnant.
Her mother - who thought her daughter had a urine infection - took her to the doctor, and was horrified to find out that her daughter was six-months' pregnant.
By that time, it was too late for Jane to abort the baby.
Said Ms Jebal: 'She gave the child up for adoption soon after giving birth.'
Her son would be about 3 years old now.
Jane and her boyfriend were subsequently referred to Ms Jebal for counselling.
The counsellor did not want to reveal more about the case when The New Paper contacted her.
She said it will bring back bad memories for the family and the girl.
According to Tamil Murasu however, both of them are from well-to-do families here.
Jane is currently taking her PSLE in a regional country but her parents are still here. The boy was sent to a Reformative Training Centre soon after.
Power ba?
..to be continued..
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