Mumbai: Baby girl weighing 5.36 kg astounds doctors

A 24-year-old Mumbai-based woman, who was admitted to the state-run Cama and Albless Hospital for Women and Children during the ninth month of her pregnancy, has delivered a baby weighing 5.336 kilograms. The normal weight of a newborn baby is between 2.5 and 3.5 kilograms. Doctors say the most common cause of overweight babies is diabetic mothers, but that wasn’t the case here.

The baby was delivered on time, but the mother, Kalpana Pore, had to undergo a C-section because of high blood pressure. The baby girl is 53 cm in height and has been admitted to the neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU) ward of the hospital.

This is the third time an overweight baby has been born to a non-diabetic mother at the same Cama Hospital in the last eight years. It’s similar to a case from 2011, when a woman delivered a baby boy weighing more than 4 kilograms. Going further back into the hospital’s history, earlier in 2011, a baby boy weighing 4.5 kilograms was delivered, and in 2010, a baby weighing 4.3 kilograms was delivered at the hospital.

“The baby is kept at the NICU ward for further evaluation and medical treatment. While a sonography was performed, other medical investigation related to thyroid, blood sugar, heart ailment, etc are yet to be done,” said Dr Rajshri Katke, medical superintendent at the hospital.

Doctors have warned that overweight babies tend to develop medical issues later in life, including blood pressure or obesity. “The baby has a tiny Patent Ductus Arteriosus (PDA) in the heart, but it will heal on its own,” said one doctor.