Mumbai: A 28-year-old woman from Colaba has given birth to a girl weighing 5.3 kg — which is the average weight of a three-month-old — at Cama and Albless Hospital. Delivered through a caesarean section on September 28, the newborn and the mother are under observation and doing fine.
While average Indian babies weigh anywhere between 2.5 and 3.5 kg, delivering babies with a high birth weight can cause the risk of post-partum haemorrhage, expansion of the c-section incision, and damage to the vessels.
Most commonly, heavy babies are born to mothers with diabetes. “In this case, the mother was a non-diabetic and she does not have thyroid either. The delivery went on without complications,” gynaecologist Dr. Rajshree Katke, who is also the medical superintendent of the hospital, said.
“We kept the baby in the neonatal intensive care unit for a few days. Now the baby is with the mother in the ward. We will be closely monitoring them,” she said. The hospital has earlier delivered a baby weighing 5.3 kg and 4.9 kg as well.
In 2016, a 19-year-old in Karnataka had delivered a baby weighing 6.8 kg. Medical experts say many often tend to think that heavy-weighing babies are healthier. “In reality, it is an alarm for us when the baby’s weight is beyond 4 kg. We count it as a complication,” Dr. Duru Shah, a gynaecologist, said, adding these babies are potentially diabetics and have to be monitored closely.
“There are very high chances that the mother has high blood sugar and may be prone to infections,” Dr. Shah said.
Studies have shown a large percentage of babies born with a high birth weight have diabetes after 40 years.
A study published in the BMC Public Health, a peer reviewed journal, said children born large for gestational age are prone to neonatal complications and developing insulin resistance, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease later in life.
“High birth weight has been associated with increased future risk of leukaemia, breast, prostate, and colon cancer,” the study said, adding high birth weight is also associated with childhood and adult obesity, which has serious long-term chronic disease consequences.