Woman Gives Birth To 15 Pound Baby

[matcom]

<snip>

MADRID, Spain --A Colombian woman has given birth to a 15-pound baby, the largest in 40 years in Madrid's main maternity hospital.

The 38-year-old mother, identified only as Rosario, had gestational diabetes -- which can cause women to give birth to larger-than-usual babies -- and a track record. Her first daughter, now nine, weighed 10.2 pounds at birth.

The new baby's father, Juan Carlos, said that with another woman he had a daughter that weighed 17 pounds at birth. "They told me it is genetic," he told reporters.

The proud parents showed off their daughter Arancha on Monday. She was born Feb. 13 at the Hospital Universitario la Paz.

The mother said she gained 48 pounds during the pregnancy and toward the end she could barely walk.

Arancha -- 22 inches long -- was born via Caesarean section in a procedure that ended up surprising even veteran nurses.

Rosario said: "I got scared when the nurses said: 'Oh my God!'. I was conscious, with an epidural, and I was afraid because I did not know if the baby had problems or in the end I was having more than one, as predicted by some people who had seen my belly."

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/02/21/woman_in_spain_has_15_pound_baby?mode=PF