If your heart is aching for some non-coronavirus news, here's a little something that might lift your spirits: An Australian mom is being applauded this week after giving birth naturally to a baby weighing 6.6 kg — or 14.5 lbs.! According to 7News Melbourne, the baby appears to be happy and healthy, and mom is doing just fine, too (despite delivering a newborn double the size of the average Australian baby).
When little Willow Amey was born to parents Melis and Ben last week, they were "startled" but not exactly surprised, 7News reports.
After all, having big babies seems to be their thing.
Melis told the news station that her first child, also a girl, weighed 5.6 kg (or 12.3 lbs.). In fact, she joked to reporters that her second daughter might even be able to share "nappies" (aka diapers) with her big sister pretty soon.
Still, the initial shock of Willow's weigh-in took a minute to sink in for her mom.
"I was like [gasps] oh no!" Melis told the news station.
Her mother-in-law, Glenda Amey, also couldn't believe how big the infant was.
"She's huge," the grandmother told 7News. "Absolutely huge."
To put it in perspective, the average newborn in Australia weighs just 3.5 kg (or 7.6 lbs.), according to Babycenter.au.
Of course, there's a range, the website stated, and that number is based on a 40-week pregnancy.
Still, Willow's size is pretty impressive. So impressive, in fact, that she's reportedly knocked another baby out of the top spot for the title of "Australia's Biggest Baby."
According to Perth Now, a baby boy named Maoama Ala was born in 2018 weighing 6.3 kg (or 13.8 lbs.). However, he was born via an elective C-section, after his mother's doctors realized he was running big.
“Everyone was asking me, ‘Are you having twins?’ and I was like ‘I wish’," his mother, Teu Ala, shared at the time. “The main thing was not his size, but he was coming out healthy and happy.”
Willow's mom said her remarkable size means she's completely zoomed past newborn clothes.
Instead, she's filling out clothes made for 3-month-olds. (But hey, at least she can wear some hand-me-downs from her big sis!)
Of course, there are some worries associated with having a larger-than-average baby.
"Bigger is not always better when it comes to babies' birth weight," Dr. Kristin Atkins, a specialist in maternal and fetal medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, told LiveScience.
For one thing, a larger baby can present some physical hurdles to giving birth vaginally. Babies born at 10 pounds or larger could have trouble moving down the birth canal, Atkins shared, as their shoulders could become trapped under the mother's pelvic bones.
This, in turn, can cause damage to the nerves in a baby's neck or even break their collarbones or arms. Other consequences could result, too — such trouble breathing or abnormally thick heart muscles, Atkins told the website.
Luckily, though, little Willow is reportedly doing well, and she is home with her parents recovering after what was likely a tricky journey down the birth canal. Here's to the little girl's continued health. (And let's all give a virtual fist bump to her mom, who no doubt pushed like a CHAMP during her delivery.)
