Wednesday, March 27, 2013

15-Pound Baby Doing Well After Scary Birth



A new mom in England got the shock of her life when the shegave birth to her son George six weeks ago—and he came out weighing a whopping 15 pounds 7 ounces.

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“He’s a little miracle—well, a big miracle, really,” Jade King, who birthed George vaginally, told the BBC.

No one realized just how big George was until his head had emerged, at which point his shoulders got temporarily stuck and he went without oxygen for five minutes.

“There was about 20-odd doctors in the room, and that’s when it got really scary,” King recalled.

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Once the baby was out, he was given a 10 percent chance of survival and transferred from Cheltenham to another hospital, in Bristol. He was kept there for four and a half weeks and then went home, and just received normal results from an MRI.

“It might just be that he’s a little big slow with his learning,” his mom added. “So hopefully it’s just minor little things.”

George has only gained a pound since his birth, and has been wearing clothes sized for a 3-to-6-month old from day one (his mom had to give away all the newborn onesies that were awaiting him at home). He is the second-biggest baby ever born vaginally in the UK, according to various reports; the larger baby weighed just an ounce more.

In George’s case, doctors were unsure of what caused his hugeness, the medical term for which is called macrosomia. But the condition is often caused by mom having had gestational diabetes during her pregnancy, according to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.  
In addition to diabetes, another risk to moms with big babies can be post-birth hemorrhaging, New York City-based midwife Miriam Schwarzschild told Yahoo! Shine. But women with twins carry around just as much weight, she added. For huge babies, she added, risks may include enlarged organs, a fractured clavicle, and, like in George's case, oxygen deprivation. 

Both King and her doctors were shocked at George's size—which is "bizarre" to Schwarzschild. "You estimate the fetal weight, always," she said. "I mean, you didn't ever feel her or talk to her or measure her? That doesn't make any sense."
George with parents Jade and Ryan King. Photo: YouTube via BBCMeanwhile, the large babies themselves face a higher risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, and stroke later in life.

Though babies this huge are rare, they are certainly not unheard of—and, according to at least one recent study, inOregon, they are becoming even more commonplace. Oregon has seen at least two 14-pound-plus babies born every year since 2005. In 2012, in China, a 15.5-pound baby boy was born, via C-section, setting a countrywide record. A 19-pound baby was born via C-section in Indonesia in 2011. And, that same year in Texas, a 16-pound baby boy was born—sans C-section—and promptly nicknamed “Moose.”

According to the Guinness World Records, Ann Bates gave birth to the biggest newborn ever, in 1879 in Ohio, when her baby weighed in at a whopping 23 pounds, 12 ounces. He died within a day. But a 22-pound, 8-ounce baby born in Italy, in 1955, survived.  

1 comment:

  1. Damn, she gave birth to a toddler. You sure he hasn't start walking and talking yet. And you pushed it through your vagina? Are you crazy? YES you are. Ain't No way in hell if I was giving birth and my doctor saw a giant head coming out of my vagina, he/she would tell me to continue to push. Shit, you could've died, no offence, I'm just saying with a baby that huge I'm surprise you didn't have no complications yourself. I know good in well your husband don't want to have sex with you again, cause your vagina is messed up for life. Question, during your ultrasound why didn't your ob/gyn see how big he was when you was pregnant? They can tell how much the baby weighs in the womb. If I was your doctor I would've talked to you and told you that this might happened if you carried to full term and the baby's complications and yourself and would've took the baby early to ignore this. But, I guess your ob didn't do it's job. I guess that's the difference between America & The United Kingdom. Anyway, good luck w/ the kid, yes I said kid cause you didnt push a baby out you push a kid out. Good Night!

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