Iowa Woman Has 12 Pound, 9 Ounce Baby Girl
Sunday, February 1, 2009 at 3:36PMTrisha and Carson Cusick of Sidney, Iowa, are parents of an eleven day old baby girl who weighed 12 pounds, 9 ounces at birth.
As reporter Elizabeth Ahlin noted, Alayna weighed more than half of the combined weight of the now famous California octuplets born last week, who weighed a collective 20 pounds and one ounce.
Trisha and Carson Cusick reportedly thought that they were having twins, but and ultrasound confirmed that she was pregnant with one baby with an estimated birth weight of 10 or 11 pounds.
On January 21, after an epidural-free five hour labor with a half-hour of pushing, Alayna was born to happy parents and shocked nurses, who insisted on weighing her promptly.
Trisha Cusick’s doctor, Jodanne Hedrick, who said she had never delivered a baby that large, commented on the unpredictable emergency of shoulder dystocia:
Women with gestational diabetes are more likely to have large babies, said Dr. Jodanne Hedrick, Trisha Cusick’s obstetrician. But Trisha did not have diabetes.
Having large babies can pose some risks, Hedrick said. Because of concerns about shoulder distortia [sic], or the baby’s shoulders getting stuck, doctors might offer patients the option of having a cesarean section instead of a vaginal delivery.
“If you ask most doctors what scares them the most, they’ll tell you shoulder distortia [sic],” Hedrick said. “That is just one of those scary situations where we have a short time and we have to be extremely careful to get that baby out.’
Fear of a “scary situation” wasn’t an issue for Cusick.
“To me, it’s not really a big deal,” Trisha told Midland News Service reporter Elizabeth Ahlin.”Everything just went smoothly. I guess I just thought it was normal.’
Sources:
12 pound, 9 ounce baby ‘not really a big deal’ to mom (Midlands News Service)
Doctor had ‘never delivered a baby that large’ (NonpareilOnline.com)
Reader Comments (15)
Cool! I love that -- half an hour of pushing! Why, I thought big babies were always problems, and the 3 P's of Passenger, Pelvis, and Power would have precluded such a large baby from being born vaginally -- after all, women's pelvises just can't accommodate babies larger than about 7 pounds, right? And even if the pelvis can, they certainly don't have enough power to push through a passenger of that size, right?! And even if they can eventually muster the power, the larger the baby the harder the birth, right? NOT!!!!
Yep. You said it!
Click on the article links for pictures. The adorability factor is very high in that family.
She is officially my hero.
My mom's biggest was just a hair heavier. She also had him naturally and without drugs. 4 of her six kids were 9 pounds or more. Our bodies are amazig!
amazing, I mean!
I love these stories. :)
Good for her!!!! I love these stories. Some women are so scared of delivering large babies, but I say (as a woman who pushed out a nearly 10 pound baby) that I doubt it would have felt any different if it was 7 pounds or 12 pounds.... either way, it's a freaking BABY coming out of your hoo-ha - and our bodies are made for it. Go Mamas!!!
Ha ha! I know what you mean. Small human. Coming out of you. Size sort of irrelevant in that, either way, there is a person coming out of you.
You just reminded me of something that I heard a few years ago that I never looked into. I think I mentally filed it as an old wives' tale. Someone told me that labor was less painful with a big baby than with a small baby because the walls of the uterus had to contract more to get the smaller baby out. It actually looks really funny in writing. Like maybe the bigger babies just kind of crawl out on their own while their mother sits and eats a sandwich while all of the woman having small babies are straining and struggling next door.
I have assisted at homebirths where the baby was bigger than that. The midwife just had the mom get on hands and knees(Gaskin manuever) and baby came right out. Pelvises are not made of concrete, and neither are baby's heads! :) Go Mama!
Holy smokes! Now that baby really WOULD tip the scales if I had birthed her...my midwife's scale only goes up to 12 lbs. 6 oz.! :) Kudos to the mom, what an accomplishment. My grandma was a 12 lber. born vaginally too.
Hi guys! I just wanted to say how much I appreciate such a positive website with positive and kind responses. Curiosity made me google our newspaper article and you wouldn't believe what I have read! One newspaper comment page compared my baby to a turkey and then painted the lovely picture of giving birth to a turkey. I would like to respond to a few things you guys said. In my experiences of child birth, my first was the hardest. I was in labor for 18 hours. I also needed alot of stitches and was anemic after she was born. It took me 12 mins to push her out. She was 10llbs 15 1/2 ozs. My second daughter was 8 1/2 lbs and I pushed her out in like a min. My third daughter, Alayna (she she was the 12lb 9oz baby) didn't hurt any more than the others. The newspaper article made a mistake. I pushed her out in 3 mins not 30. I think that maybe since I didn't have and epidural (scared of them) helped me to deliver so fast. Thanks again for being so nice. The world needs more people like you guys!
Hi Trisha! I'm glad you stopped in again. =) I had wondered if your story would bring the weirdos out of the wordwook. I'm sorry it did! You'll find cheerleaders here- that's for sure.
Congrats again.
Jill, I'm sure you've already seen it, but in case any of your readers haven't, I wrote about why having a large baby is not cause for concern, and that shoulder dystocia is more closely related with other factors besides the size of the baby.
http://jeremyscorner-grifter.blogspot.com/2009/04/big-baby-is-not-emergency.html
Hi Emily,
I think that is the third time you've linked to this post. In the future, do me a favor and just summarize the point of your post instead of linking, ok? Gracias.
Jill
My son (my third baby) was born on Feb. 1st at 12 lbs, 6 ounces, and I had a very different experience. I labored for 18 hours, and pushed for an hour and a half, and he never got past zero station. I was very anti-cesarean, and had planned to have an assisted home birth. Both of my daughters were delivered naturally, so I felt that I could do it, but as it turns out, I couldn't. In this case, I was very grateful for the c-section.
I absolutely don't agree with the extremely high cesarean rates in this country, but I also think that it's important to remember that every woman is different, and in some cases, big babies ARE a big deal.