The tragedy of children about to give birth but their parents do not know

(Dan Tri) - There are many cases of girls being repeatedly abused by relatives until they become pregnant and are about to give birth, but their parents still do not know.

6th grade girl pregnant without anyone knowing

Receiving information that the victim had just been supported by the One-Stop Model for Women and Children in Ho Chi Minh City, Ms. Tran Thi Kim Thanh, Head of the Department of Child Protection, Care and Gender Equality of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City, was upset because the victim was only 11 years old (born in 2013), 6 months pregnant, and neither her family nor the school knew.

Bi kịch những đứa trẻ sắp sinh con nhưng cha mẹ không biết - 1 — Child abuse support area of the One-stop model to support women and children in Ho Chi Minh City (Photo: Contributor).

According to the program's report, this girl is in 6th grade, she is pregnant but her family did not pay attention, thinking she was gaining weight. When her belly was getting bigger, her mother took her to the doctor and discovered she was 26 weeks pregnant.

When the family brought the baby to Hung Vuong Hospital to prepare for birth and received support from the One-Stop Model staff, the fetus was already 35 weeks and 4 days old.

After receiving the case, the one-stop shop staff implemented psychological, medical, and legal support steps for the victim according to the procedure. However, the difficulty is that the family does not want to deeply investigate the cause of the baby's pregnancy, only wants to solve the problem themselves, and does not want many people to know. The baby's parents plan to wait until the baby is born to continue raising the baby and send the baby back to school.

The case of a girl named C. is similar. On the day of her birth, she was only 15 years old. She dropped out of school after finishing 4th grade, her mother died early so there was no one to care for her, she met her boyfriend on social media and got pregnant after a few months. Her father did not know about C.'s relationship with her boyfriend and did not want to intervene legally, refusing to accept support.

Bi kịch những đứa trẻ sắp sinh con nhưng cha mẹ không biết - 2 — Child abuse is a problem that Ho Chi Minh City is determined to eliminate (Illustration: Tung Nguyen).

The list of victims that the One-Stop Shop recently received also includes a 14-year-old girl who had to give birth by cesarean section. She dropped out of school after finishing 5th grade to work and lives in Can Gio with her biological parents, siblings and boyfriend. At only 14 years old, she has been dating her boyfriend for 2 years. Her family knows but does not intervene and also refuses to provide legal support.

Another 15-year-old girl also had a cesarean section at Hung Vuong Hospital. She dropped out of school after 9th grade, became a street vendor, and lives in District 8 with her biological parents, boyfriend, and siblings. She had a boyfriend since she was 13, and her family agreed and refused legal assistance.

Children give birth to children, who takes care of who?

According to statistics from the One-Stop Model to Support Women and Children in Ho Chi Minh City, from April 2023 to October 2024, the program received 133 victims of abuse and violence; of which 114 cases were consensual, 14 cases were abused and 5 cases were violent.

What is of concern is that most of the victims were girls and minors, with only 5 cases being adults. Meanwhile, the group of perpetrators had only 1 child, the group of 16-18 years old had 20 people, the rest were all older.

Bi kịch những đứa trẻ sắp sinh con nhưng cha mẹ không biết - 3 — Victim data received by the One-Stop Model to support women and children in Ho Chi Minh City from April 2023 to October 2024 (Source: Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City).

What is alarming is that out of 133 cases received, 103 families accepted that the victim was abused (accounting for 77.44%); only 13 families reported to the police, denounced, and sued (accounting for 9.8%); 2 families reported to the police but then dropped the complaint and negotiated; 7 families concealed the incident; 4 families did not share any information...

This greatly affects the work of supporting and handling perpetrators to create a deterrent effect, warn and protect the rights of abused girls.

Bi kịch những đứa trẻ sắp sinh con nhưng cha mẹ không biết - 4 — Family background of the victim of abuse (Source: Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of Ho Chi Minh City).

According to Ms. Tran Thi Kim Thanh, what is more alarming is that there are many cases of children being abused while still in school, the victims are pregnant for many days but both the family and the school, the people responsible for caring for and protecting the child, are unaware. When the fetus is very large and is discovered, the only thing left to do is wait for the child to be born and raised.

Statistics from the program show that out of 133 cases received, 19 children are still in school; of which 6 are in high school, 11 are in middle school, and even 2 are still in elementary school.

Bi kịch những đứa trẻ sắp sinh con nhưng cha mẹ không biết - 5

Ms. Kim Thanh is worried that the abuse from a young age will affect the child's psychology, partly because the responsibility of raising, caring for, and educating the child will be very difficult when the victim is only 13-14 years old. This will negatively impact the future of both mother and child.

"Just imagine a 13-14 year old child, still in the age of playing and having children, how will children take care of and raise each other in the future?", Ms. Kim Thanh shared.