A 16-year-old Argentine girl gave birth to female triplets for the second time in her life on Wednesday, local media reported.

The birth re-ignited a debate across Argentina about sex education for teenagers. "The baby girls were born, the first at 0058 (0258 GMT) - 1.7 kilograms (3.75 pounds), the second one at 0059 (0259 GMT) - 1.7 kilograms (3.75 pounds) and the third at 0101 (0301 GMT) - 1.69 kilograms (3.73 pounds)," said a doctor at the hospital in Cordoba.

Doctors said the three newborns and their mother were well and are puzzled by the two consecutive multiple births. Teenage mother Pamela had the first baby, a boy, at 14. A year later she gave birth to the first set of female triplets.

Pamela grew up in the remote town of Leones in the central Argentine province of Cordoba. After her first set of triplets were born in July 2006, she asked doctors to tie her tubes, in order to prevent any possibility of getting pregnant.

The doctors refused as, according to Argentinean law, the procedure cannot be performed to women under 21. All seven children were born prematurely. Pamela receives help from the local and provincial authorities, who built her a house when the first set of triplets was born.

However, she told local media she's overwhelmed. She has been abandoned by the fathers of all of the children, was forced to leave school to take care of them and is currently unemployed.

Pamela's mother, the children's grandmother, is the only source of income for the family. "We will have to use a programme of non-permanent contraconceptive methods, what we call barrier methods such as intrauterine devices or hormonal methods, something with a high security so this girl can plan her family”, said another doctor.