Woman gives birth to 15lb baby, the heaviest ever recorded in India

The baby, born by caesarean section, weighs as much as a six-month-old child

The baby girl weighing 15lb could be India's heaviest newborn ever (Youtube / Caters)

A 15lb baby girl is the heaviest child ever born in India, and could be the biggest in the world.

The baby, who was born by caesarean section, is the same weight as a six-month-old – and three times heavier than average in India, where newborns usually weigh 2.5-3.5kg.

The girl was born in hospital to a 20-year-old called Nandini in the south west Karnataka region.

“It is the biggest baby in India, I can say. Whether it is the biggest in the world, I cannot say right now,” a district health official told the BBC.

Both mother and child are said to be healthy, but have been kept in hospital for a week so doctors can figure out the reason for the baby’s big size.

The child is also exceptionally tall, at 62cm, compared to the normal height of babies in India, which is 50cm.

Dr SR Kumar, who is looking after Nandini and her child, said he tested the mother for diabetes, as this can often cause babies to be overweight, but had found her to be healthy.

“We have done an ultrasound and conducted blood tests on Nandini, but we didn't find any abnormality,” he told the BBC.

In November 2015, a baby boy weighing 6.7kg was born in the Uttar Pradesh region of India. But Nandini's child has broken this record.

A recent study found that women who are overweight during pregnancy are more likely to have heavier babies, even if they do not have diabetes.

There were 20 million obese women in India in 2014 compared with 9.8 million obese men, according to a study published in the Lancet – and while the number of overweight people in India remains small, the number is growing.

The heaviest healthy baby ever born weighed 10.2kg and was born in Aversa, near Naples in Italy in 1955, according to Guinness World Records.