A giant two-foot-tall baby weighing 16 pounds born in Brazil
Padre Colombo Hospital in Parintis, Brazil confirms that a newborn weighing 16 pounds and measuring 2 feet tall is the largest baby ever born in that state.
An event of gigantic proportions occurred in January at the Padre Colombo Hospital in Parintis, in the Brazilian Amazon. Angerson dos Santos, was born by caesarean section, a baby who measured two feet (60 cm) and weighed 16 pounds (7.3kg). By way of comparison, newborn boys weigh an average of 7lb 6oz (3.3 kilos) and girls 7lb 2oz (3.2 kilos), making it almost unprecedented.
The term used to describe these “giant babies” is macrosomia (Greek for “big body”), used to describe excessive development or size of the body. Any newborn weighing more than 8lb 13oz (4 kilos), regardless of gestational age, is considered a macrosomic baby.
Process
Babies belonging to this group account for around 9% of births, according to the Mayo Clinic. In fact, in women with gestational diabetes (high blood sugar during pregnancy), this percentage increases to between 15% and 45% of births, a representative figure in relation to the total.
The mother, Cleidiane dos Santos, is 27 years old and went to the hospital last week for a routine check-up and to thoroughly check the status of her pregnancy. However, the doctors determined that the baby was too big and that the birth could not be done naturally nor let the pregnancy continue to full-term, so they urgently prepared an intervention.
“He is the biggest baby ever born in the state”
Barely 24 hours later, Cleidiane underwent a C-section from which Angerson was born. The mother, who spent several days recovering in the hospital while the baby rested after the premature delivery, was discharged from the hospital without complications for the doctors. An immense joy.
The heaviest baby on record in the world weighed 22lb 8oz (10.2 kilos) when he was born in 1955 in Italy. The hospital itself, after publishing the news on its Facebook account, assured that both the mother and the baby are in perfect condition. “He is the biggest baby ever born in the state,” they detailed.
Factors that increase the risk of macrosomia
The factors that increase a woman’s risk of giving birth to a giant baby are many and varied. One of them is body weight, since obese mothers are twice as likely to have a newborn with macrosomia. In addition, excessive weight gain during pregnancy also increases the risk of macrosomia.
As if this were not enough, gestational diabetes and pre-gestational diabetes is another risk factor, to which the doctors at the Padre Colombo Hospital in Parintis have attributed the size of the baby. Finally, a late pregnancy, a maternal age greater than 35 years, previous pregnancies and the age of the father are other factors that also increase the risk.