So what would you call a big or heavy baby?

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

A friend just had her son at 8½ lbs. I can't think if that's big or not. She's Japanese and her DH is English. I guess for a Japanese woman, it could be big.

Anyone know the range of size, please?

[Weegle]

Well I think macrosomic babies (the term for medically big babies) is something like over 9lb 3oz (not sure of the exact amount), and my DS was 12lb 12oz - so I consider 8.5 lbs positively petite

[peanutbrittle]

oooh, my DD2 was 10lbs - I knew she was big but never realised she was MACROSOMIC...how cool!

[EyeballsintheSky]

Right, where's that bloody diabetic nurse? I'm going to print this thread out and inform them that, at 8lb 10oz at term, dd could have been left where she was for a bit and they didn't need to pin me down and induce her out

[notsoteenagemum]

Ds was 9lb5.50z, I realised he was big on the way out of the delivery room when we saw a Dad holding twins whos combined weight was less than ds and then when he stretched and all the poppers on the newborn babygro popped open like the Hulk!

[Cheepz]

ds was 10lbs 5oz and like notso he never fitted any newborn gros! he was very long! also pleased to note he was MACROSOMIC - sounds impressive!

[DontCallMeBaby]

Not so scientific as macrosomic (filing that one away for later use) but my reaction to being told baby weights:

9lb something -
10lb something -
11lb something -
12lb plus -

Anything under 9lb isn't big - mine was 8lb 5oz and she was definitely baby sized. I might move up into if the mother was particularly tiny.

[bronze]

yes when I had my second baby who was 8lb 7.5 he was postively tiny. (first was macrosomic )

[JemL]

According to a programe I watched about big babies a while back, medically speaking big is 9.9lb and above...

[olivo]

doesn't it depend on how big you are? if you are tiny with a weeny pelvis, 8 1/2lbs would be big!

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

Well, that's what I was wondering. I mean, I know the size of your hips has nothing to do with the size of your pelvis ultimately but I was wondering if a 5ft 2ins woman having an 8½ lbs baby would be considered 'big' for her?

[CarGirl]

I'd say 10lb plus was noticebly big.

I'm 5' with size 8 hips, my first was 7lb 6oz, my 2nd 10lb 6oz (VB) so I don't think maternal size has anything to do with pelvis size at all.

[olivo]

close to my heart this one - mine is measuring ( by scan) on 97th centile and they are talking about it being big ( i have GD). i am 5ft2 and not looking forward to squeezing him out!

[ItsGrimUpNorth]

Take heart, olivo. My friend (who is 5ft 2ins) was told her baby would be 10lbs+ and he is 8½ lbs. I know you have GD which could affect things.

He was delivered by section though because he was a brow presentation. I don't think that's anything to do with his size though because that can happen to all babies.

I do wonder about the accuracy and validity of scanning and predicting weight in utero. My friend was terrified at the thought of giving birth to a massive child and him getting stuck and brain damaged and her mind was clearly working over time on this!

[CarGirl]

I measured small, 39 at 42+3 was told that dd was not big even though I looked huge . Seriously even though I'm podgy at the moment and have 4 dc my hips are still a size 8 and it was an unassisted birth, one tiny stitch.

Didn't have any clothes to fit her though....

[princessmel]

I think a baby on the top end of 8lbs and nearing 9lbs and over is big.

Ds was 8lb 2 half oz and dd 8lb 5oz so generously sized!!

[MrsMattie]

9 lbs plus

I had a 10 lb-er and thought that was enormous...then a friend had an 11 lb 5 oz baby au naturelle. Eek.

[cece]

They don't test blood sugars till they are over 4.5 kilos, so I would say that and above is considered big.

[seeker]

My ds was 10lb 6 and was born after a 2hr45 minute labour with no pain relief and only a few stitches. I really don't think, unless you have an abnormally small or rigid pelvic bone that maternal size makes much difference.

Love macrocosmic - will use it from now on.

One thing I do know, I still remember how disconcerting it was to have all the medical people frowning over his potential size and worrying about diabetes (I didn't have it) and things. And I particularly remember one lovely young Nigerian doctor who gave me a huge smile and said "What a lovely sturdy baby you're growing!" It was the only positive thing anybody had said about how big he was, and I've got a picture of his face in my mind 8 years later!

[CarGirl]

Hmm hospital told me they test blood sugars over 9.5lbs - they're obsessed with undiagnosed GD!

[CarGirl]

I refused GD testing on dcs 2 & 3 because dd was just so very tall rather than chunky, dh is 6'3" so hardly surprising that she was on the tall & heavy side in hindsight.

They got very flappy and started insisting on formula when they weren't interested in bf etc - very stressful.

[BlueSmarties]

Both mine were only 8lb 4oz but declared 'big babies' as too big to fit through my pelvis. I thought it was a proportions thing.

[Grandhighpoohba]

DC was 9lb 2, and that felt big enough! Mind you, aparently my mum was 13lb 4 so I got off lightly.