Big bundle of joy: Baby born at 13lb 6oz

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.

Daily Mail Online
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Source Document
By Liz Hull, Daily Mail 11th August 2004
image by Paul Lewis Daily Mail

Unusually Large Infant Born in Mexico - 21st May 2004
Mexican parents Salvador and Blanca Rosa de Leon Garcia had a big surprise this week--their baby, Pedro, was born weighing 13 pounds 6 ounces. Pedro was so large that he could not be born naturally and had to be delivered by Cesarean section. He is approximately the size of a 3-month-old infant. Medical experts estimate babies that big only occur once in every 40,000 births.