Childbirth is the process through which one or more babies leave a woman's uterus through vaginal passage or Caesarean - you know what? Nope. I don't want to think about this. It's super gross. And sounds super painful. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's the miracle of life. Pass. I'd rather talk about how many Netflix accounts watched Bird Box in a week!
However, on December 12, there was one remarkable birth at the Arlington Memorial Hospital in Arlington Texas. Jennifer Medlock delivered a 14lb 13oz baby boy, which is roughly twice the size of the average newborn. A spokesman for Texas Health service told USA Today they believe he is the biggest child born at the hospital.
The boy, named Ali, measures 21 inches in height and was delivered through C-section. Doctors discovered that due to his large size, he had low blood sugar platelets. After spending some time in the neonatal intensive care unit, Ali rapidly recovered. He went home on December 19, just time for Christmas.
Jennifer said she that expected Ali to be large, because her first child, two-year-old Annabelle, weighed about nine pounds, ten ounces at birth. However, she never anticipated her second child would be a record-breaking size. "We did not expect 14 pounds - nobody did,"she stated.
Jennifer is only five-foot-three, so maybe those 'big' genes come from the other half. Her husband, Eric, a music teacher, told the Star Telegram, "We have a lot of six-foot-five-inch giants in our family." Well, that explains it!
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest baby born in the United States weighed an incredible 22 lbs. The parents - 7 ft 11 in Anna Bates and 7 ft 9 inch Martin van Buren Bates - were giants that worked as performers in the traveling circus. Celebrated for their height, they were known as "The Tallest Married Couple."
When Anna's water broke, she lost an astonishing six gallons of fluid. But sadly, the baby died after just 11 hours. His father wrote, "He was 28” tall, weighed 22 lbs and was perfect in every respect. He looked at birth like an ordinary child of six months." The child had no name, and was known simply as 'Babe.'
Congratulations to Jennifer and Eric Medlock on a healthy childbirth. Maybe if you have another enormous kid, you can name him after Rubeus Hagrid, the half-giant, half-human gamekeeper in the Harry Potter series. And if it's a girl, you could name her after Olympe Maxime, the half-giant, half-human witch and Headmistress of the French magic school Beauxbatons!
I wonder how childbirth works in the Harry Potter series. Healing charms? Midwives? Do doctors just flick their wand and say "Accio baby?" That sounds fun! (And less gross and painful.)
