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Are bigger babies better?

Weighing in on a heavy-duty topic for new parents

Alicia Priest,

Originally published in Today's Parent March 2006

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He was big. He was beautiful. And he was hers. All 10 pounds, 13 ounces of him.

That’s how much Seamus Smyth weighed when he welcomed the world just over a year ago on February 3, 2005. He was Mary Griffin’s second child. “This guy just blew me away,” says the Victoria mom (five-foot-eight and 150 pounds), whose first son was a mere seven pounds, nine ounces.

Rachel Staples, a petite Victoria mom of three boys, can empathize. Elliot, her first, checked in at nine pounds, nine ounces. The second, Oliver, was 10 pounds, four ounces. And Isaac, the third, was…well, Staples’ anxiety mounted with each passing week of her pregnancy. Staples’ obstetrician had warned her that subsequent pregnancies tend to result in bigger babies.

“I was concerned,” Staples recalls. “All that was in my mind was ‘Is this going to be an 11-pound baby and what is that going to feel like?’” She describes her first two deliveries as “very difficult.”

As it happened, Isaac slipped out at an even eight pounds after two relatively easy hours of labour. Still, he was slightly bigger than the average Canadian baby, who tips the scales at just over 7½ pounds.

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