Texas mom delivers 16-pound newborn

China Daily via Agencies, July 12, 2011

Newborn JaMichael Brown lays in Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview, Texas, in this handout photo released to Reuters July 11, 2011.

A Texas mom expected a big baby, but nothing like this: 16 pounds, 1 ounce (7.3 kilograms).

Janet Johnson on Monday remained in an East Texas hospital after giving birth to what her doctors called one of the biggest newborns they've ever seen. She was awaiting word on whether her son, JaMichael Brown, ranked among the biggest births in state history.

"Everybody was amazed that he was so big," Johnson, 39, said. "I don't think too many people have heard of having a 16-pound baby."

JaMichael was born Friday at Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview. Johnson has gestational diabetes, which results in bigger newborns for many mothers. Doctors had estimated JaMichael would be around 12 pounds (5.44 kilograms) prior to the cesarean birth.

The hospital has asked the state's vital records department whether JaMichael is big enough to approach any Texas newborn records, said Victoria Ashworth, a hospital spokeswoman. He is certainly the biggest in the history of the Longview hospital and was born, Ashworth said, almost two years to the day after the hospital delivered its smallest baby ever, who weighed just 15 ounces.

Guinness World Records says the heaviest newborn ever recorded weighed 23 pounds (10.43 kilograms), 12 ounces (340 grams), born to an Ohio woman in 1879.

Ashworth said JaMichael, whose father is 6-foot (1.83-meter)-7 inches (17.78 centimeters), was likely to be transferred Monday from the neonatal intensive care unit and into the regular nursery. Johnson said she hoped to get her son home later this week - and return his newborn clothes that won't fit.

Not to mention, Johnson said, get her son out of the spotlight finally.

"It's gotten overwhelming," Johnson said. "But if I had heard of someone having a 16-pound baby, I would probably want to have heard about it, too."