Cleidiane dos Santos, 27, arrived at Padre Colombo Hospital in Parintins, Amazonas, for what seemed like a routine checkup. Her sixth pregnancy was already at week 41. No one in the room expected what was about to happen.
Angerson Santos was born by cesarean section weighing 7.3 kilos and measuring 59 centimeters. To put it in perspective: an average newborn weighs 3.3 kilos. Angerson nearly doubled that figure and came close to the world record of 10.2 kilos, set in Italy in 1955. The clothes they had ready for him simply did not fit.
Doctors attribute his size to his mother’s gestational diabetes and hypertension, two conditions that allow more glucose and fat to pass to the fetus during pregnancy. Angerson is already part of a very exclusive club: macrosomic babies, those who enter the world much larger than anyone imagines.