The Virgin Mary is not the only woman who has reported a virgin birth; modern women also claim to experience the phenomenon.
A research team looked at a number of reports of "virgin births" that have taken place since the mid-1990s, a British Medical Journal (BMJ) news release reported.
Mysterious "virgin births" have been seen in animals such as "pit vipers, boa constrictors, sharks, and Komodo dragons," but the event has rarely been taken seriously or studied in humans.
The team confidentially interviewed 7,870 over a 14 year period. The study employed audio computer assisted self-interviews and computer assisted self-interviews.
In each interview the participants were asked to report their history of vaginal intercourse and assisted reproductive technology as well as if they were or had ever been pregnant.
The interview asked the participants' "age, the importance of religion [in their lives] , and presence of a chastity pledge." The individuals' knowledge of a number of birth control methods was also taken into account.
Out of the thousands of women 0.5 percent claimed to have experienced a virgin birth without the help of reproductive therapy.
Thirty-one percent of the women who claimed to be virgins who had given birth had signed chastity pledges. Fifteen percent of non-virgins who had given birth and 21 percent of virgins that had not given birth had signed a pledge.
The parents of the subjects were also interviewed on how they had educated their daughters about sex. Virgins who reported pregnancy were found to have been less educated about sex than most non-virgins.
The "virgins births" also took place a younger age (19.3 years) on average than non-virgin births (21.7 years).
"Reporting dates of pregnancy and sexual initiation consistent with virgin pregnancy was associated with cultural mores highly valuing virginity, specifically signing chastity pledges, and with parental endorsement of items indicative of lower levels of communication about sex and birth control," the authors said in the news release.
The stastics were self-reported, so there are chances of "respondent bias and misclassification."
