A baby boy weighing 7.4 kilograms at birth has set a record for China’s heaviest newborn.
Chunchun was born via caesarean section that lasted about 20 minutes on Feb 4.
Both mother and the baby are doing fine, according to doctors in Henan province’s Xinxiang city, the Global Times reported.
His 29-year-old mother Wang Yujuan said Chunchun’s elder sister was four kilograms at birth who is now six years old.
“I clearly felt that my body was more clumsy than when I had been pregnant with my daughter. My belly was bigger than it was then,” Wang said.
“I guessed the baby would be four-and-a-half and five kilos. I never expected to hear that he weighs so much.”
For the title of China’s heaviest newborn, Chunchun edged out three other babies born between 2008 and 2010, all of whom weighed exactly 6.98 kg.
In a study researchers have found that the baby’s genes, or genes shared between mother and child, certainly contribute to high birth weight. The chance a baby will weigh more at birth is greatly increased if the mother gains excessive weight during pregnancy.
The study, published last year in the scientific journal The Lancet, defined high birth weight as four kilograms or heavier.
The heaviest birth listed by Guinness World Records belongs to a baby boy born in 1879 in Ohio, who weighed 10.77 kg at birth and whose mother was said to be a “giantess”. Unfortunately, the baby died 11 hours after birth.