Social services are investigating after an 11-year-old girl, believed to be Britain's youngest ever mother, gave birth.
The young girl became pregnant as a 10-year-old and gave birth to her baby after the 30-week mark.
According to The Sun, the girl's family was unaware of her pregnancy until after she delivered the baby.
"It has come as a big shock, " a source close to the family told The Sun. "She's now being surrounded by expert help. The main thing is that she and the family are OK."
Council chiefs and social services are now investigating the pregnancy.
The source told The Sun it was "very worrying" no-one knew and there are now "questions around why people did not know".
The girl is a year younger than Britain's previous youngest mum, Tressa Middleton, who gave birth aged 12 in 2006. Middleton was forced to give up her baby girl after it was revealed the father was her brother, who had raped her when he was 16 and she was 11.
Doctor Carol Cooper told The Sun the 11-year old girl is the "youngest mother" she had "ever heard of".
"The average age at which a girl begins puberty is 11, though it can be anytime between eight and 14, or younger."
She said girls are reaching puberty earlier than previous generations due to biological and environmental factors.
According to Cooper, getting pregnant at a young age means there is a "higher risk of a low-birth-weight baby, pre-eclampsia, premature labour and many infections."
She added one in every 2500 births happens to someone who "doesn't know she's pregnant or has hidden it".
According to data from Statistics New Zealand, the youngest woman to give birth in Aotearoa from 2014 to 2016 was 13-years-old.
The number of people giving birth under the age of 16 has declined continuously over the period of 2001 to 2013, according to data from the National Institute of Demographic and Economic Analysis at the University of Waikato.
In 2014 a baby was born to a mum aged 12 and a dad aged 13 in the UK - the lowest known combined age of British parents.
