240kg mum gives birth to 6kg baby

240kg mum gives birth to 6kg baby

Doctors in Germany were left astounded after a gigantic baby set a new record for the country's heaviest-ever naturally born newborn.

The baby boy, weighing a whopping 6 kg, has been named "Jihad" by his mother Elfi and father Mohammad Yaghi.

His mother, identified only as Elfi, delivered the babyat Berlins Charit hospital, after seven hours of labour.

Elfi isa 40-year-old, 240 kg woman who also had gestational diabetes, according to doctors. Jihadis the couple's 14th child.

Thecouple named him Jihad - which means struggle in Arabic, after considering the efforts to bring the baby to the world safely, according to Der Tagesspiegel daily.

Women suffering from untreated gestational diabetes - when a pregnant woman who doesnt previously suffer from diabetes has excessively high blood sugar - tend to produce particularly overweight babies.

Jihad, weighing a whopping 6 kg, was delivered without the help of a C-section

Such newborns are often delivered via caesarean section because they can suffer from oxygen deficiency or shoulder dislocations during birth.

But in this case the mother opted for a normal birth, which lasted seven hours and luckily went off without a hitch.

"She insisted on a vaginal birth despite the very high risk," said Wolfgang Henrich, the chief doctor at Charits obstetrics clinic.

"We usually advise mothers carrying a child with an estimated weight of more than 4.5kg to opt for a caesarean section to avoid complications.

Elfi posing with her gigantic baby

The boy will join nine brothers and four sisters - four of which had birth weights of more than five kg.

Elficlaimed she didnt know of her diabetes, but doctors bel! ieve she was aware and ate too much sweet food.

A normal birth weight is about 3.5 kg. Babies over four kilos are generally considered to be overweight and run higher risks of diabetes and obesity later in life.

But the new Berlin boy is far from the biggest baby ever.

An Indonesian woman gave birth to an 8.7kg child in 2009, and one Canadian baby born in 1879 weighed in at 10.8 kg, although he died shortly after birth.
Source: The Local/Agencies

Published Nov 26 2011