A woman in Arlington, Texas who gave birth to a baby boy weighing 15 pounds earlier this month told reporters she believes her son is “meant for something big.”
“Maybe not football,” Jennifer Medlock joked with reporters after her son’s birth. “Everyone keeps saying that.”
Ali James Medlock weighed 14 pounds and 13 ounces at birth, which is nearly twice the size of the average baby.
A newborn typically weighs between six and 8.5 pounds when it is born, according to Baby Center Canada.
Ali’s parents, Jennifer and Eric Medlock, were told by their doctor that Ali was the “biggest baby” the physician has ever delivered in his 30-plus years in the field.
CBS reports that baby Ali, who was delivered by C-section, had to stay in the neonatal intensive care unit for about a week because of some complications, including rapid breathing and low blood sugar and platelets.
But his mother told reporters she had a healthy pregnancy.
Dr. Doug Campbell, director of the neonatal intensive care unit at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, told Global News that larger babies are often delivered by C-section because they can result in traumatic deliveries.
He added that while second and third babies are often larger in size, an exceptionally large baby could be a result of diabetes — such as gestational diabetes, a condition where the mother develops high blood sugar during pregnancy.
Campbell said a condition like gestational diabetes can result in low blood sugar and rapid breathing, like what baby Ali experienced.
He said in very rare cases, this can be dangerous for the baby as it can injure the child’s brain or cause seizures.
“The vast majority of babies that are born big are fine,” he added.
The couple said they had a feeling he’d be a big boy because at nine pounds and 10 ounces, his sister was also above average weight for a newborn.
“It doesn’t matter how big he is, I’m so blessed to have him,” Jennifer told CBS reporters.
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Jennifer has severe polycystic ovary syndrome, a disorder that can result in the ovaries releasing eggs irregularly.
She said doctors had told her before she gave birth to her first child that she’d have difficulty conceiving.
Both Ali and his sister were born with the help of fertility treatments, she said.