Chun Chun, 15-Pound Baby, Sets Record As China's Heaviest Newborn (VIDEO)
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A 15.5-pound baby born in the city of Xinxiang in China's Henan Province has set the record for the heaviest baby born in China, the Times of India reports.
Chun Chun was born in a caesarean section which lasted around 20 minutes on Saturday.
Both the mother and baby boy are doing fine, according to doctors who spoke with the Chinese newspaper Dahe Daily.
According to the Sun, mother Wang Yujuan, 29, told local reporters her pregnancy with the boy felt different than her pregnancy with Chun Chun's big sister, now 6 years old, who weighed 8.8 pounds at birth.
"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, according to the Sun. "I guessed the baby would be between ten and 11 pounds. I never expected to hear that he weighs 15.5 pounds."
For the title of China's heaviest newborn, Chun Chun edged out three other babies born between 2008 and 2010, all of whom weighed exactly 15.4 pounds.
In a study published last year in scientific journal The Lancet, researchers set out to determine what causes high birth weight.
While they discovered 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 defined high birth weight as 8.8 pounds or heavier.
The heaviest birth listed by Guinness World Records belongs to a baby boy born in 1879 in Ohio, who weighed 23 pounds 12 ounces at birth and whose mother was said to be a "giantess." Unfortunately, the baby died 11 hours after birth.
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First Posted: 02/ 7/2012 12:06 pm Updated: 02/ 8/2012 4:21 pm