Babies born in Europe have an average weight of around 7.7 pounds / 3.5 kg, ranging between 5.5 and 8.8 pounds or 2.5 and 4 kg.
Discover our latest podcast
Meanwhile, in the US around one in 10 babies born at full term weigh more than 8 pounds / 3.6 kg and three in 100 babies - more than 9 pounds / 4 kg.
It’s highly unusual to see newborns bigger than that, and it’s only natural that the doctors in Germanywere left in shock after delivering an ‘enormous’ 13-pound child (nearly 6 kg) whose size and length were typical for a three-months-old.
Luckily, the mother and ‘a little giant’ are both in good health.
Meanwhile, this British baby was bornthanks to a groundbreaking medical procedure.
Doctors were taken aback after finding this growing inside a child's head.
Woman gives birth to an ‘enormous’ baby
A woman in Hagenow, Germany did something that left not only the hospital but also her whole town and country in awe: she gave birth to a ‘little giant’.
On June 8 this year she delivered a baby weighing 13 pounds or nearly 6 kg and measuring 24 inches or 61 cm tall. The most incredible thing is that she didn’t have to resort to the Caesarian section to give life to her son - she did it naturally.
The child was named Raphael and luckily, his mum Stefanie Oldag didn’t have any health complications.
According to the doctors, the ‘little giant’ is one the largest seen in the town for the past 30 years, while his natural birth makes him even more ‘rare’.
Raphael's size is very unusual for a newborn and is more typical for a 3.5-month-old boy.
Read more:
⋙ Nurses' shock as they spot something unusual on the newborn baby's stomach
⋙ This couple used a surrogate mother but refused to keep the baby after noticing an unusual detail
Large babies can lead to major health risks
According to The Guinness World Book, the record for largest baby ever belongs a 22-pound child who was delivered in 1879 in Ohio, US. Both his mum and dad were over 7 feet tall. Sadly, the not-so-little one died 11 hours after birth.
Delivering large babies naturally can lead to health problems for both the mother and the offspring, risking long delivery times, injuries, and blood loss.
The ‘giant’ newborns are more likely to develop respiratory distress syndrome and have excessive amounts of red blood cells resulting in liver damage and jaundice.
Baby Raphael who was predicted to be much smaller in size, is the lucky one as both he and his mum suffered no complications.
Lars Autrum, the chief physician for gynaecology and obstetrics at Hagenow Hospital, said:
This child is certainly among the top 10 births in Hagenow over the past 30 years.
Meanwhile, senior physician Frank Schönherr and midwife Benita Dähn both admitted they had never in their medical practice seen such a huge baby, let alone delivered naturally.
Read more:
⋙ This British baby was born thanks to a ground-breaking medical procedure
⋙ Doctors shocked after finding a foetus growing inside a newborn baby's head
Sources used:
- Newsweek: 'Baby the Size of a 3-Month-Old Delivered by Natural Birth'