It is quite an appropriate study to come out at Christmas.
Mary being the first and all…
Because you see it seems that nearly one percent of young women who have become pregnant claim to have done so as virgins.
Yes, you read that right. Virgin births.
An American study has found that of 7,870 women aged 15 to 28 interviewed more than 0.5 per cent of them who said they were virgins had also given birth.
As soon as you read that you think IVF-technology-marvelous-advances-they-have-made.
But no. This is WITHOUT IVF.
The researchers also found that the mothers in question were more likely to have boys than girls.
And to be pregnant during the weeks leading up to Christmas.
(No mangers were mentioned and yes – the only wise men around turned into blubbering idiots at the sight of childbirth)
But this isn’t a gag.
The women were part of the long-running National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, according to a report in the Christmas edition of the BMJ.
The girls were 12 to 18 years old when they entered the study in the 1994-95 school year and were interviewed over 14 years about their health and behavior.
Based on interviews with the women, 45 of the pregnancies in this group through the years occurred in women who reported that they conceived without a man being involved.