A mother has had an ‘incredible’ home birth and delivered her 12lb baby girl naturally.
Ayshah Maton, 34, gave birth to her first daughter Eloise at home on her living room floor in Ashendon, Buckinghamshire, on March 12 – using only gas and air as pain relief. The mother-of-four was joined by her husband Gari, two midwives, and a doula as she welcomed her baby.
Despite her daughter weighing more than one and a half times the average weight of a newborn baby girl in the UK, Ayshah described the birth as an ‘amazing’ and calm experience.
Ayshah, who is also mum to sons Ethan, seven, Hugo, five, and three-year-old Cooper, said: ‘It was an amazing birth. It was a really positive experience. I think maybe it was because I knew what to expect, because she was my fourth. But it was my first home birth, and it was such a different experience. It was so much more relaxed when you’re in a safe, familiar environment, rather than in a hospital. It’s so much nicer birthing at home, because afterwards you can just have your own food, and go and tuck yourself up in your own bed.’
‘It’s so much nicer birthing at home, because afterwards you can just have your own food, and go and tuck yourself up in your own bed.’
And Ayshah said she had expected Eloise to be a big baby – after her second and third sons were born weighing 11lbs 2oz and 11lbs 3oz, respectively.
Ayshah herself measures five foot seven inches tall, whilst her husband Gari is just under six foot.
She joked: ‘I don’t know how, but we just seem to produce big babies. I was expecting her to weigh in at around the 11lb mark – but she did surprise us a bit when she turned out to be the biggest baby. I wasn’t really worried about delivering her at home, though. I always knew I wanted to give birth naturally, and whatever size she was going to be wasn’t going to be any different if I was at the hospital or at home.’
Ayshah spent most of her labour in a birthing pool in her living room after going into labour at 2am on Friday, March 12. She only left the water right at the end – and gave birth to Eloise on the living room floor, beside the sofa, at 12.14pm.
But despite being the biggest out of her siblings, Ayshah’s labour with Eloise was her second-shortest – only around 15 minutes longer than her labour with three-year-old Cooper.
But she said: ‘By the end of the weekend I was up and about again and almost back to normal, just a little bit achey.
Ayshah said: ‘It’s really amazing what the human body is capable of.’
Weighing in at 12lbs and 0.5oz, Eloise is thought to be one of the biggest baby girls born naturally in the UK – after record breaker Suzie Gzowski tipped the scales at 12lbs 12oz in January 2012. The average weight for newborn babies in the UK is 7lb 8oz for boys and 7lb 4oz for girls.
Pass the epidural! Britain’s biggest ever babies – with one weighing in at more than a STONE
The heaviest baby ever born in the UK was 15lb 8oz Guy Carr, from Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, who was welcomed via caesarean section in 1992.
George Joseph King, who arrived on February 11 in 2013, is thought to be the biggest baby born naturally in Britain, weighing 15lb 7oz at Gloucester Royal Infirmary.
George’s mother Jade Packer, then 21, who had gas, air and a last-minute epidural, described the labour as ‘horrifically traumatic’.
In December 2017, Brodey Young became the heaviest baby born at a hospital in a decade.
He weighed in at 12lb 130z – nearly the same as a bowling bowl, stunning midwives and doctors on the Blueberry Ward at Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby – and his mother Sheralyn Wilcock, of Cleethorpes.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the heaviest baby ever born was the son of Canadian giantess Anna Bates (née Swan) who gave birth at her home in Seville, Ohio, on January 19, 1879.
Her not-so-little boy weighed 22lb (9.98 kg) and measuring 71.12 centimetres (28 in). The baby, who was not officially named but just referred to as ‘Babe’, sadly died 11 hours later.
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