19 Pound, 24 Inch Long Baby Boy Born in Indonesia
Filing this story under “Three Cheers for the Cesarean Section.”
Read about the mother and child here.
Jill
Gloria Lemay just wrote about big babies of mothers with uncontrolled diabetes. Gloria noted:
This is a baby who could very easily have died in utero from the effects of out of control blood sugars in a diabetic mother. Then, the world would never have heard of him. This happens every day around the world. Even after being born alive, any pediatrician will tell you that these babies who look so big and strong are alarmingly vulnerable.
NICU nurse Reality Rounds agreed with Gloria in a comment on the post Big Bebeluş! Romanian Woman Gives Birth to 15 Pound (6.8 kg) Baby, stating:
It is a pet peeve of mine when media outlets report on these giant babies who are admitted to the NICU and call them “healthy.” I just took care of a baby the other day who was a mere 9 pounds who had blood sugars in the 20’s (normal BS to maintain brain cells is 45-50) and was lethargic and refusing feeds. These babies can be really, really sick and I wish they would cover that aspect also.
Canadian woman Melissa Leavitt had to wait four weeks before she saw her nearly 16 pound son’s eyes. She blogged last year that Wyatt had to remain in isolation following her planned cesarean.
Wyatt was so sick, I couldn’t hold him, touch him or even speak to him. No loud noises were allowed around him. He had to be in a “womb” like state with no stimulus and I remember holding my breath every time a nurse would touch him because his stats would “crash.”
Melissa recently offered advice on reducing your stress while waiting in the NICU.
A question for health care professions, particularly NICU nurses… If you saw two ten pound newborns next to one another and you knew that one was from a non-diabetic mother and one was from a mother with uncontrolled diabetes, could you tell which was which?
Reader Comments (5)
Now THAT is some cephalopelvic disproportion!
Thanks for the links as well, Jill. It's really good to see this story in perspective, including the blood sugar & other dangers. instead of just gawking at it in a Guinness World Record kind of way. And yes, this sure does belong on Absolutelypositivelynecesarean.com!
Wow. What was the head circumference on that baby?
Like 34.
INCHES.
That's a big baby dude, that's for sure.
How did I miss this post? Thanks Jill for being realistic. I also wrote about the 19 pound baby with a tone of extreme irritability.
http://realityrounds.com/2009/09/25/this-heavy-baby/
For your question about being able to tell if the baby was just big or a baby of a mom with uncontrolled diabetes. Yes, we can usually tell. The uncontrolled diabetic babies tend to be more lethargic, or have high pitched cries, or just "look funny" (very scientific I know, but instincts count), have poor tone, have large deposits of adipose around the face and eyes, etc. You are not going to quiz me are you?
That's almost exactly what a home birth midwife e-mailed me. My babies were huge but they had, like, necks. No GDM here.
It's so weird that a nine pound baby of a diabetic mom could be so unhealthy and a nine pound baby of a non-GDM mom can be hearty and happy. All of the big baby stuff I write is geared toward non-GDM women and I rarely even read about diabetes. I probably should these days.