A mum has given birth at home during lockdown to one of Britain’s biggest babies – weighing the same as a BOWLING BALL.
Proud Emma Fearon, 34, welcomed boy Atticus James Fearon who arrived at a whopping 11lb 6oz.
Incredibly she required no stitches following the birth on May 24 – and only had gas and air as pain relief.
And she now has one of the countries biggest families – her firstborn Aria, three, weighed 10lb 8oz at birth and her second child Amelia, 2, was 9lb.
Emma had Atticus in a birthing pool using hypnobirthing techniques set up at her home in Thornton-le-moore, Cheshire.
She said: ”I birthed him in a pool with the midwife arriving with only half an hour to spare.
”I only had a couple of puffs of gas and air and got away with no stitches.
‘It just goes to show what women’s bodies are capable of and a nice reassurance for those that are predicted to have big babies.
“The birth went amazingly – I used hypnobirthing to calm and ground me and the labour was only two and a half hours long start to finish.
“I’m really pleased that I got to give birth at home as I would have had to go alone to the hospital if not with my husband staying at home with the girls.
“I had planned to have a home birth from the start and was concerned when NHS trusts started to close down the home birth service as I was so dead set on it.
“I researched unassisted birthing and then ended up hiring two independent midwives so that I could definitely have the birth that I wanted and felt this was the safest.
“The midwives were very supportive and weren’t concerned about his size – they both felt that your body would not produce a baby that you can’t give birth to and were very encouraging of my plans, although none of us thought he’d turn out quite so big.”
Baby Aria was born in hospital after a long delivery that required forcep assistance and resulted in a big tear and an episiotomy.
Second baby Amelia was also born in hospital but without any issues, leading Emma to decided to have home birth with a birthing pool for her third baby.
She delivered baby Atticus at home with the assistance of her husband James, 34, and two independent midwives, using only gas and air as pain medication.
Emma is now doing well at home and is exclusively breastfeeding Atticus whilst still feeding his 27 month old sister Amelia at the same time.
She said: “”I am now exclusively breastfeeding Atticus which is a full on round the clock job because of his size and maintaining his glucose levels, as well as breastfeeding his sister Amelia still.”