What a shame you have been made to worry over mere size... 8 pounds at that (which is not a big baby). When I think back over all the births I have heard and read about it seems to me that births to bigger babies on the whole seem to have been less painful and traumatic. I've heard of quite a few challenging births involving small babies... nowhere near as many big baby births (I'm talking of above 9 pounds). I've had 3 babies: 7, 8, 9 pounds in that order. My 7 pounder was the most painful. There are often stories in the newspaper about very petite asian women giving birth to very large babies... I think the largest was 14 pounds to a Chinese woman... and she birthed vaginally, no problems. There's a thread in the General News forum area... i'll give it a bump for you... go have a read.