Whoa, baby!


The Cessna family, from Armstrong County, Penn., is celebrating the birth of Addyson Gale Cessna, who arrived at 13 pounds, 12 ounces[1] and more than two feet tall.


Though the delivering hospital, Armstrong County Memorial, doesn't maintain birthweight records, doctors told KDKA Addyson is the largest they've ever delivered[2] .


“I think as mothers, we all have that initial, oh my that must have hurt, and they’re right. That’s big.” Dr. Yannie Narcisse, one of the delivering doctors, told KDSK. The station reports that Addyson, herself, was delivered via c-section.


In March of this year, George King, a British baby, became the U.K.'s second largest infant to have ever been delivered vaginally[3] . He weighed 15 pounds, 7 ounces.


Despite Addyson and George's sizes, however, these babies don't come close to the record, set by a boy born to Anna Bates, a Canadian, in 1879[4] . Baby Bates weighed 23 pounds, 12 ounces, and was more than 30 inches long.


While these big babies may be cute, just like their adult counterparts, notable weights often signal more serious health problems.



Mary Helen Black, a biostatistician with Kaiser Permanente Southern California's department of research and evaluation explained to HuffPost in an interview last year, "There may be a general perception that, 'Oh, the baby's big, but so what?' That's a misperception[5] ." She cautioned that babies who are born too large are at an increased risk "for very serious consequences both during delivery, for the mother and the infant, as well as later in life -- for the infant."


Known as "fetal macrosomia[6] ," when a baby is born weighing more than 8 pounds, 13 ounces, this condition can be attributed to maternal obesity and diabetes, among other factors.





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  • Akbar Risuddin, 19.2 Pounds


    Akbar, born in October 2009, set the record for heaviest baby born in Indonesia. <a href="http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/32999499/ns/today-parenting_and_family/t/whoa-baby--pound-boy-named-akbar/#.T4b2z4WA5Xc" target="_hplink">MSNBC reported</a> that his mother, Jakarta, had gestational diabetes which was likely a cause for his heavy weight.




  • Nadia Barabanova, 17.1 Pounds


    In September 2007, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W0BsDDHSJQ" target="_hplink">Tatyana Barabanova</a> gave birth to her 14th baby. Though Nadia was the heaviest, <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/277535/17-lb-baby-born-in-Russia.html" target="_hplink">The Sun</a> reported that her other children were all over 11 pounds.




  • JaMichael Brown, 16 Pounds


    Janet Johnson gave birth to<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/11/16-pound-baby-jamichael-brown-_n_894477.html" target="_hplink"> possibly the heaviest baby ever born in Texas</a>. "A lot of the baby clothes we bought for him will have to be returned. They're already too small for him to wear," mom told the <a href="http://www.news-journal.com/news/local/article_44dd91d7-bb4e-5ae3-80ef-bf3537ba7c96.html" target="_hplink">Longview News-Journal. </a>




  • Axel Laverne Dolton, 15.6 Pounds


    Wendi Dolton, Minnesota mom,<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/30/minnesota-woman-gives-bir_n_373795.html" target="_hplink"> gave birth to Axel in November 2010. </a>Mom told the "Today" show that she, too, was a large baby weighing in at over 10 pounds.




  • Chun Chun, 15.5 Pounds


    Wang Yujuan, 29, gave birth to China's heaviest baby in February 2012. "I guessed the baby would be between ten and 11 pounds. I never expected to hear that he weighs 15.5 pounds," <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4113708/Big-baby-news-Chinas-heaviest-baby-on-record-is-born.html" target="_hplink">Wang told The Sun</a>.




  • Asher Stewardson, 14 Pounds


    In January 2012, Iowa mom,<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/asher-stewardson-13-pound-baby_n_1241904.html" target="_hplink"> Kimberly Stewardson</a>, gave birth to nearly 14-pound Asher after six hours of labor (without an epidural). Her older son, born just fifteen months early, was 12 pounds and one ounce.




  • Jihad Yaghi, 13 Pounds


    Elfi Yaghi, 40, gave birth to her 14th child in November 2011. Baby Jihad broke the record as heaviest baby born in Germany. Mom <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/jihad-baby_n_1116406.html" target="_hplink">made headlines</a> because of her baby's controversial name -- it means "A holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty".