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?

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

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

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

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!

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!

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.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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!

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!

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....

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!!

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.

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