OMG 16 lb baby born...seriously? The doctor didn't see this coming?

Hell yeah he has blood sugar problems...babies don't get this big without something being wrong metabolically...they are lucky he didn't die.

http://www.wfaa.com/video?id=125268304&sec=553117

>>>snip
Jamichael came into the world with a head full of hair. He weighed in at 16-pounds, 24-inches long with a 17-inch chest — the biggest baby ever born at Good Shepherd Hospital in Longview.

:shrug:

PB

my patient wasn't doing very well--called the doc about 2 in the am to ask him to come evaluate him before he coded.

Doc was rude as all get out and certainly didn't appreciate a nurse telling him that he needed to intervene.:eyes:

Long story short--I told him I wasn't taking the hit for this and I was documenting that the doctor refused to come and evaluate him after I requested. I also told him I would make sure that the family knew too after we pronounced their Daddy dead.

He was infuriated because I put him in a spot where he couldn't blame me.

He comes up there...the patient wasn't doing very well. It pissed him off I was right.

Anyway...he walked over to the patient and told him...I kid you not..."That since the nurses were concerned so he was going to ELECTIVELY intubate him..."...
He seriously couldn't admit that I was right.
The patient crashed before he could "electively intubate" him...and the elective part turned into an emergent necessity. Patients aren't that pretty when they are a lavender shade of blue.

Before he left the doctor "kind of" apologized by saying that in his defense, nurses call him all the time with stupid stuff--but did clarify this particular time it wasn't stupid.:eyes:

I wouldn't have my toenails clipped in that place.

As a former medic, you just made me laugh... That was not quite the way I put it to my kids...

should have put him on the no-fly list!

and that IS a big baby... C-Section... before that both used to die

long before delivery...that's why they measure them every week...

and it was a gest diabetes.

I hope they brief mom on syndrome X... baby is now at risk for it when he reaches adulthood.

My friend had gestational diabetes, and her 7.5 mo baby weighed in at 8.5 lbs.. She was delighted to have it over early.. they did amnio to make sure his lungs were "ready"... He ended up playing college baseball/football and was a 210 lb 6'4" "baby"..

The things that are the most important in determining the well-being of a newborn are blood sugars, temperature and airways and their symbiotic relationship.

Everything a newborn is able to do is dependent upon his blood sugars.

Eating, breathing...even having to work to keep his temperature up burns a lot of calories.

So, when you have an infant that big, chances are you are already going to have to mechanically breathe for that infant because he cannot work hard enough to breathe on his own without bottoming his blood sugars. He isn't even capable of maintaining his body temps without stressing him.

So...basically, you have an infant that is already going to have to be on a vent if he goes to term...better take him at 35 weeks before he is too fragile to even maintain his temperature. It appears they took him at 39 weeks...and that was foolish.

He was the biggest baby at the hospital in quite a few years. There was also girl born that night weighing 8 pounds.

Damn, that must be the Mother of All Wombs.

You must remember that multiple births will make for an even larger womb.

lol

produces huge babies. Diabetes care would likely have produced a normal sized infant.

I had a C section years ago because I am a small person with a narrow wheel base. The doctor was smart enough to figure out this before labor started. I did NOT have gestational diabetes, just problems moving and breathing and generally laying around like a disabled person.

I went into labor at term,40 weeks, and had an EIGHT POUND girl, 20 inches long, which is HUGE for a girl.

No dilation and no dropping because the head was too big for the hole. The kid was jammed in diagonally.

Her head was at my lower left and she was pushing her feet against my right side bottom ribs and making them move.

She never kicked because there was no room for her to kick. Shoulder presentation at Minus 3.

Thank medical science for C sections. I and my now grown healthy daughter would have died. She's grown now and a tiny thing like me -- five foot two inches tall. Her father was extremely tall and thin.

And one granola eating earth mother here on DU thinks that ALL babies can be born vaginally. She told me I had a "Deformed pelvis". WRONG. I just have a narrow wheelbase but I am NOT deformed. I have very small bones.

My mother is 5'5".

Maybe a tad above average, but not HUGE. My grandmother, a teeny tiny woman at 4'11" and 85 lbs gave birth vaginally to 8 babies, 7 of which were more than 9 lbs (4 of those were girls). Your stature does not determine your ability to give birth. The shoulder presentation did.

As an aside, birth weight is also highly dependent on when the baby is born. I've had 4 girls and had gestational diabetes with all of them. My first was just under 7lbs at 40 wks. The next was 7lbs even at 38 weeks. The third was nearly 10 lbs at 42 wks (long story about why I went that long - I was very closely monitored and blood sugar was strictly controlled). My fourth was 7lbs 8oz at 38 wks. Only my last had problems maintaining her blood sugar. Near the end of pregnancy babies gain a half-pound a week, so a baby that is 7 lbs at 38 wks could be 9lbs at 42 weeks. It bothered me that with my fourth they had a freak out because my previous baby was nearly 10 lbs. Yeah, she was also 2 weeks overdue! If my last 3 babies were all born at 40 weeks, they'd have all been roughly the same size.

From what I heard, the doctors were aware this woman had gestational diabetes, and *said* they talked to the woman about diet and exercise and blood sugar control but if she followed through or if those were enough for control I think it's obvious they weren't. I'd say they weren't careful enough or she wasn't getting enough care - or she simply had problems being able to afford all that comes along with trying to control your blood sugar (expensive meter and test strips, expensive healthy food). Even here in Canada it was expensive for me to get all that stuff. Test trips were $75! Crazy...

One case I saw in nursing school was a footling breech. Not only was the baby the wrong way, it couldn't be turned because its little foot was sticking out Mom's vagina, one of the weirdest things I ever saw. C-sections, done appropriately, save the life of the mother as well as the baby.

I'm glad your daughter is healthy and so are you.

However, untreated gestational diabetes results in huge infants who are a challenge to care for afterward. Their blood sugar can crash very suddenly, they're more prone to jaundice, and many have health problems like heart defects if the mother developed the diabetes early in the pregnancy. The woman in this story fit the profile.

There's a world of difference between an 8 pound full term infant and a huge 16 pound infant.

she was only 4'11", but my pgf was 6'2". dad was small, but after giving birth to him (vaginally), she was unable to have any more babies, as it had screwed up her pelvis. this was in 1929. i imagine c-sections were pretty rare back then.

I can't imagine a 16 pound baby.