Woman delivers baby weighing 5.2 kg

Dr Rajasekar, chief gynaecologist and managing director of WCF hospital, said the mother and baby were doing well. “When we checked the pregnant woman for blood sugar level, everything was normal. We knew the baby would be heavy, but the baby weighing 5.2 kg was quite a surprise,” he said.

For parents Vijayakumar and Sangeetha, the macrosomic baby is their fist child. Vijayakumar, who delivers bubble top cans to houses, said the baby was fine and everyone in his family was thrilled to see the newborn.

Gynaecologists say they have been seeing larger than average babies (between 4 and 4.5 kg) often, and anything above 5 kg is uncommon. They point to environmental changes and women leading a sedentary lifestyle as major reasons for delivering heavy babies.

Renowned neonatologist Dr Deepa Hariharan says that delivering huge babies is not healthy. “Baby weighing between 2.5 and 3 kg is normal. There’s a greater need to maintain proper diet and exercise before pregnancy and during pregnancy.

Such women develop risk of diabetes subsequently or gestational diabetes in the next pregnancy. These babies are usually large due to the increase in the insulin level of the pregnant women.

It’s not a good sign and it shows more number of women are in pre-diabetic stage,” says Dr Hariharan, adding such newborns are usually born with weak lungs, swollen heart and their intestines are not very strong.

She recalled that four years back, a woman delivered a 5.5 kg baby that was considered the heaviest baby born in the city. In February this year, a woman from Manipur’s Thoubal district gave birth to a girl weighing 5.9 kg, the country’s heaviest baby.