India’s Biggest Baby on Record is Born and She’s How Big? Whoa!

A 15 pound baby girl? No, we’re not talking about 3-month-old, or even a 6-month-old. We’re talking about a 15 pound newborn. That’s right – newborn!

Nandini (she goes by her first name only), a 19-year-old from Hassan, India recently gave birth to the heaviest baby girl on record. The previous record (for a girl) went to Carisa Rusak of Massachusetts. At 14 pounds, 5 ounces the not-so-little newborn has held the title of biggest baby since 2014.

The new record holder was born via Caesarean section. Not only was Nandini’s baby heavier than the average newborn, but she was also much longer. With a height of 62 cm, she’s roughly 12 cm’s taller than the average Indian newborn. The surgery took half an hour, and went on without any problems.

While overweight newborns are often the result of gestational diabetes or other disorders (such as thyroid conditions), the mum had a normal pregnancy that was free from these diseases. Dr. SR Human told BBC Hindi, “We gave done an ultrasound and conducted blood tests on Nandini, but we didn’t find any abnormality.”

In cases of extremely overweight babies, there is often a fear that baby will have irregular sugar levels or suffer other health-related effects. So far there, the baby’s sugar levels have been normal and doctors have not found any other medical problems.

Dr. Venkatesh R, district health official in Hassan district, noted, “It is the biggest baby in India, I can say. Whether it is the biggest baby in the world, I cannot say right now,” he told BBC Hindi. Even though 15 pounds certainly sounds heavy to most us, this new record breaker isn’t exactly the biggest newborn ever. Anna Bates, a 7 foot 11 inches tall woman from Canada, gave birth to a baby boy weighing 22 pounds in 1879 in Seville, Ohio. Only referred to as “Babe”, the 22-pounder only lived for 11 hours. The Guinness World Record for biggest baby born to a healthy mum currently goes to a 22 pound, 8 ounce boy born to Carmelina Fedele in Italy in 1955.