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Sean is one of Britain's
biggest-ever
babies
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Liverpool
Women's Hospital |
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Big
bundle of joy: Baby born at 13lb 6oz
Daily Mail Online
www.dailymail.co.uk
Source Document
By Liz Hull, Daily Mail 11th August 2004
image by Paul Lewis Daily Mail
For anyone who has ever
given birth, one word pops into mind when they hear this. Ouch! Mothers
everywhere will spare a sympathetic thought for Trisha
Lightwood.
After an eight-hour labour, she has given birth naturally
to one of Britain's biggest-ever babies. Sean entered the
world at a thumping 13lb 6oz -
the weight of the average three-month-old. He already has
a hearty appetite and, at less than two weeks old, is wearing
clothes made for infants up to six months older. Last night,
his 37-year-old father Mark said: "We
couldn't believe it when the doctors told us how much he
weighed. To say we were shocked is an understatement. "Neither
Trisha nor myself are big people so for Sean to be so big
is astounding."
Fight for life
Mrs Lightwood, 38, suspected her baby was large when her weight soared from 10st
to 15st during her pregnancy. But she didn't know how large until doctors at Liverpool
Women's Hospital decided to induce the birth on July
29 as Sean was ten days late. After a difficult delivery, he had
no heartbeat, had stopped breathing and was beginning to turn blue.
But doctors massaged his heart and he was taken to the special
care baby ward where nurses had to find an incubator big enough
for him. At first the couple, from Childwall, Liverpool, feared
Sean's brain had been starved of oxygen and damaged. But tests
proved there were no serious complications and he has since
made a full recovery. Mrs Lightwood said: "When he was
being born I could hear the midwives shouting it was a big
baby, but I had no idea how big.
"I didn't have an epidural, just some gas and air and
diamorphine at the start of the labour. It was quite painful,
and worrying when Sean came out blue, but he had a decent-sized
umbilical cord which sustained him and he soon came around.
"I think the midwives were a bit shocked by his size.
I'm feeding him every three hours. I did start breast- feeding,
but that just got too much and we are on bottles now."
The Lightwoods, who also have a two-year-old daughter Jenny,
have been forced to return the baby clothes they bought for
Sean and exchange them for larger sizes. Following the birth,
Trisha has discovered there is a history of large babies in
her family. Her grandfather Nicholas Cummins weighed around
13lbs at his birth in 1904
Dame Lorna Muirhead, a retired midwife, former president of
the Royal
College of Midwives and trustee of mother and baby charity
Baby Lifeline, said: "I spent 40 years delivering babies
and only saw a 13 pounder once. They are very, very rare." Despite
his size, Sean is not Britain's biggest baby. That honour belongs
to Guy Carr, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, who weighed in
at 15lb 8oz in 1992 - although there were reports of babies
weighing over 20lb in Cornwall and Crewe in the 19th century.
The Guinness Book of World Records has the largest baby born
on record as weighing -- are you ready? --
24 pounds.
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