She looks like a proud teenager posing with her little brother and six sisters for a family photograph.
But incredibly Pamela Villarruel is the mother of all these seven children. And she gave birth to all of them by the time she was 16. Pamela has more children than any other teenage mum in the world and doctors have described her as a 'scientific rarity'. She gave birth to her son when she was 14 then had two sets of triplets in two years.
'Every day is a struggle but I wouldn't change anything,' says Pamela, who is just 17. 'They are my little miracles. It's exhausting, but the most important thing is that all my children are happy and healthy.
I'll be the best mum I can possibly be. 'Pamela, the youngest of six children, is currently living with her mother
Magdalena, a cleaner, and her disabled dad Jose in Leones , a farming town 300 miles from the Argentine capital Buenos Aires . She no longer sees the three fathers of her children. Until she was 12 Pamela was
just like any schoolgirl, excelling in maths and gossiping about clothes and the latest pop bands. Then she met a local boy. 'I thought I was in love and wanted to be close to him so we had sex,' she says.
'I was almost 13 when we did it for the first time. Then I fellpregnant.
'I was terrified as I was so young, but my mum was very supportive, as she had her first baby when she was still young. But I had a misc arriage at three months, which was very frightening. '
Pamela's mother told her about the importance of contraception, yetfive months later she was pregnant again by a new boyfriend, 17-year-old Miguel Gonzalez, from the nearby town of Marcos Juarez .
'Inever thought I'd get pregnant again and didn't take precautions, 'says Pamela. 'I was in love with Miguel and thought we would be toget her forever. I was naive.' Abortion is illegal in Argentina , except in extreme cases such as rape, so Pamela, then 13, had to have the baby. Her son Lisandro was born in June 2005 when she was 14. 'Miguel moved in with us in and tried to support me but it was difficult and after six weeks he went back to his family,' she says.
Soon afterwards she began seeing a new boyfriend, 18-year-old Ariel Benitez, an unemployed builder. Within weeks she was pregnant again. 'I really loved him and he loved me too,' she says. 'I know I should have been
using contraception but stupidly we didn't. I can't really explain why not.'
But Pamela was stunned when a scan showed she was expecting triplets. 'I couldn't believe it,' she says. 'Nobody in my family had even had twins before. 'Pamela went into labour two months prematurely. In July 2006 she gave birth by caesarean section to three girls - Ludmila, Macarena and Candela - weighing 3lb 12oz, 3lb 14oz and 3lb 15oz. She says: 'It was a very complicated birth. I suffered a lot afterwards.
I was so ill I thought I was going to die.
'Ariel stayed with me through my pregnancy but he left when the triplets were four or five months old.' Neighbours and friends rallied round and donated clothes, nappies, shoes and milk. Soon Pamela started seeing a new teenage boyfriend, Franco, and her frantic mother inquired about getting her sterilised.
Magdalenawas told she would need a special order from a judge as Pamela was under 21, so instead the young mum began having contraceptive injections. But after forgetting to have just one jab Pamela became pregnant again and a scan revealed she was expecting another set of triplets. She says: 'It was much more of a
shock as I realised how difficult it would be with seven children.' And last month Pamela gave birth to Martina, Morena and Magali - weighing between 3lb 11oz and 3lb 13oz - five days before her 17th birthday.
Dr Jose Alberto Oviedo, who supervised the birth of all the triplets, is convinced Pamela's incredible brood are a world first. 'There are no recorded cases of any woman giving birth to two sets of triplets consecutively without IVF treatment,' he says. 'As far as I know there are no girls her age with as many children. The odds are astronomical. 'Her triplets are non-identical - each time Pamela produced three eggs, rather than the usual one, which were all fertilised. The council in Leones built Pamela a small house after she gave birth to her first set of triplets, but with seven young children to look after Pamela moved back in with her mother.
It's a tight squeeze - along with her seven children, her mother and father, two of her brothers are still at home and the family get by on social security of £80 a month. 'With seven children I need a lot of help but I hope to move back into my little house.' she says.
'I don't have time for boys now and I'm single. But if I met a boy I would make sure I was careful and don't
plan to have more children. I'm going to have a coil fitted.'
Subject: 17-Years old Teenager has SEVEN Children 
13/9/2008, 11:15 am
