“I was like [gasps] oh no!” Melis tells news outlets when she saw how big her baby was. Glenda Amey, her mother-in-law, also couldn’t believe how big she was. “She’s huge, absolutely huge,” the grandmother tells news stations.
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The average newborn in Australia is 7.6 lbs based on a full, 40-week pregnancy. Willow’s weight is actually so impressive that she knocked out the leading baby for the top spot for the title of “Australia’s Biggest Baby.” Previously, a baby boy was born in 2018 weighing in at 13.8 lbs. However, he was born via C-section when doctors realized he was on the bigger side. “Everyone was asking me, ‘Are you having twins?’ and I was like ‘I wish’,” his mother shares at the time. “The main thing was not his size, but he was coming out healthy and happy.”
Potential dangers of a baby being this size at birth
Dr. Kristin Atkins is a specialist in maternal and fetal medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. She weighs in on babies being born bigger than average. “Bigger is not always better when it comes to babies’ birth weight,” she says. One thing is that it could provide obstacles for mothers that plan to give birth vaginally.
Additionally, babies 10 lbs or larger can have trouble moving down the birth canal and get stuck under the mother’s pelvic bones. This can cause damage to the baby’s neck or break their collarbones or arms. Thankfully, for this couple, Willow is doing very well and did not encounter any of those issues during birth! Congratulations to the new parents on their bundle of joy.