Macrosomia can be described in common terms as “big baby”. Any baby that is larger in size than the average ones are called as big baby. Macrosomia babies weigh more than 8 pounds by birth and statistics report that about 9% of babies are born with Big Baby Syndrome or Macrosomia worldwide. Giving birth to a big sized baby poses risk for the mother during the time of delivery. Further it can cause health problems for the child as he grows giving rise to diabetes and obesity related problems.
Signs and Symptoms :
- Big babies grow in the womb like other babies and it is not possible to detect macrosomia during the term of pregnancy.
- Certain cues can suggest that you may be having macrosomia babies. Fundal height measurement can indicate the baby can be big one. Fundal height is the distance between the pubic bone and the top of your womb (uterus). Big babies are likely to produce more output of urine than normal ones. Excess of amniotic fluid suggests that the baby’s urine output is more and it can be big baby.
Macrosomia Causes :
There is no specific cause for having macrosomia babies. It can be due to genetic factors or can be due to predisposed obesity of the mother. In some families fetal macrosomia runs in family and such mothers are at high risk of having big baby. In rare cases growing infants can develop medical problems causing macrosomic babies.
Risk Factors :
- Any mother can give birth to big baby irrespective of age. But certain factors given below increase the risk of macrosomia babies.
- Prolonged Diabetes : Women with diabetes for long duration before pregnancy or having uncontrolled diabetes is at risk of having fetal macrosomia.
- Obesity : Women who are already obese before pregnancy and those with history of fetal macrosomia have increase chance of having big sized babies.
- Age : Women who are getting conceived after 35 years are at risk of fetal macrosomia.
- Other risk factors of macrosomia include increasing number of pregnancy (more child-births), overdue pregnancy (continuing pregnancy after due date) and having a boy baby.