Don't fear the big babies!

[Trillian]

From the Sunday Telegraph, August 12:

Special Delivery
London: It ws a natural birth with a quite unnatural result.

With the help of four midwives and some gas, British mum Amanda Ellerton calmly delivered a 6.5kg baby boy.

Already a mother of two, she had no inkling her newborn would pop out almost as big as a six month old.

"the other two were both average weights and I didn't expect Shaune would be any different," she said

"Once his head appeared I could see the surprise on everyone's faces. It was very painful but it was all worth it for our big bundle of joy."

See, it CAN be done, although I suspect that if she wasn't under the care of midwives that a Ob would have had her in surgery pronto to give birth via c/s.

Another thing that I love is that she had no assumptions that he would be so big - she just did what she had to do to give birth and his size was an unknown factor. Had she been told that he was going to be so big I think the outcome would have been different too.

[Enchanted]

OMG! That is amazing.

What a job well done by her and what a fantastic outcome with no intervention!

[Kaylene]

Did she need to push or did the sheer weight of the baby and gravity do all the work? OUCH! She must have felt heavy, wouldnt she?

[shazza]

From the Sunday Telegraph, August 12:


See, it CAN be done, although I suspect that if she wasn't under the care of midwives that a Ob would have had her in surgery pronto to give birth via c/s.

Another thing that I love is that she had no assumptions that he would be so big - she just did what she had to do to give birth and his size was an unknown factor. Had she been told that he was going to be so big I think the outcome would have been different too.

I JUST WANTED TO SAY WHAT U SAID IS PEFECT I DELIVERED A 12 POUND 8 BABY AND U GET NO CHOICE YOU JUST HAVE TO DELIVER A BABY NO MATTER WHAT THE SIZE IS

[{sarah}]

WOW, that's a 14.3lb baby. Well done to her

I agree with you Sherie that because she had no idea that bub was going to be big was definitely in her favour.

[MistyFying]

My younger sister is very, very slim with small hips etc and all three of her boys were over 10lb, all delivered vaginally. She surprised herself because she's always been a wimp when it comes to pain, and she managed her pain really well. So she'd be another one who discounts the size of the baby necessitating an automatic C/S.

[Lucy]

14.3lb! (Thanks Sarah......cannot think in metric when it comes to babies!)

Wow. Good on her! (It is making me wince a little as that is twice the weight of any of my babies!)

[Inanna]

I'm another that can't think metric for baby weights! So thankyou Sarah...

How wonderful. I agree Sherie. When women are told : aahhh it's a really good sized baby there, or wow this baby is big". It sets a woman up for fear. Fear blocks birth.

In the absence of maternal illness a woman rarely grows a baby that is too big for her to birth. I have a friend who is tiny. Teeny little thin hips and her babies have been up to 11 1/2+ pounds. We need to trust our bodies...

[Berry]

Gee its amazing what the body can do!

[AnyDream]

Sherie, that's a fantatic story to post - thanks! I KWYM about her expectations only about being delivering a baby and therefore there was no fuss/mental blocks about it!

[10longyears]

I birthed a 4.511 kg baby vaginally with no drugs, 2 hours from first contraction to full dilation, 5 hours pushing. It can be done. He was my first as well. I think my benefit was that no one had said to me "oh my god you are going to have a big baby" I also had in the back of mind, cope with each contraction as it comes as the next may be worse. It seemed to work. Although straight away the Dr said next time you will definetly have to have a c/s. Thats fine I just wont come back to you next time. LOL.

[bon]

Wow good on her! She must have felt huge!

[~kaos~]

Yes Yes Yes - Don't Fear A Big Baby!!!

Like others, I was not told that my first was a sizeable baby - he was 9lbs 5oz (4.22kg) and I'm tiny. My midwife didn't tell me. I asked her after I had given birth if she knew I was having a big baby and her words were "I had an idea, but you didn't need to know". She was absolutely right. I had no fear and got on with my job of birthing my baby. No complications and no tears.

My second was 6lbs 13oz - I swear she fell out, thanks to her brother paving the way

[Kirst11]

I am a firm believer that your body wouldn't produce something that it couldn't push out. My DD was 8lb 8oz, so not too big, but I will be VERY surprised if this one is under 9.5lb. And I am sure that I'll be fine too.

[shazza]

i want to know why they dont tell you if u are having a big baby and if they know what dont they do a c section with some ladies if there baby is too big like my little chicky when she was born i definately should have had a c section

[goldilocks]

Thanks for posting this, Sherie...I saw it in the weekend paper and was so impressed and inspired by her story!

For my entire pregnancy, I've had to put up with people telling me that I'm going to have a 'HUGE baby', making presumptions merely on the size of my belly. Where do these people get off, trying to put the fear of god into you?!!

I must admit, at times I've wondered if maybe they're right and a tiny seed of doubt starts to form in my mind. But stories like these reassure me that a woman's body is an amazing thing and was designed for birthing, no matter the size of the woman nor the baby!

So thanks for all the great stories, ladies...hopefully I'll be adding my own sometime in the next 7 weeks or so

[BekZ]

A very slim lady at our playgroup just gave birth (at home) with no complications to a 10lb 6ounch baby boy!!! She said it was her easiest birth out of 3 kids.

Belle - About the size of your belly, this is not always an indication about the size of your bub. The lady above was very small and compact and my SIL was huge and her bub was 5lb 10ounch. Oh yes thanks for the comments about my DD, I did not want to reply after Lee's news but I did want to thankyou..I think her Dad will have a tuff time during teenage years!!!!

[{sarah}]

i want to know why they dont tell you if u are having a big baby and if they know what dont they do a c section with some ladies if there baby is too big like my little chicky when she was born i definately should have had a c section

Jessabell, there is no way to know for sure how big a baby is going to be prior to birth. Lots of people have sacans & are told that their babies are going to be big but they turn out significantly smaller, some are accurate but it's pretty rare from what I've heard/read.

A lot of the time babies have issues coming out because of positioning rather than them being too big. There aren't a lot of cases of true CPD (pelvis being too small) either from what I've read, it's all to do with the positioning of mum & baby.