Carmela Torres was 18 when she became pregnant for the first time. It was 1987 and she and her now-husband, Pablo Hernández had just moved to Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, in search of a better life. One December afternoon, suddenly out of nowhere, her body began to convulse with sharp contractions. It was more than two months before her due date. She rushed to the Instituto Materno Infantil (Mother and Child Hospital) in the east of the city. Not long after arriving she gave birth naturally to a baby boy weighing just 1,650 grams (3lb 10oz).