Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
An image is going viral with social media users claiming it to be a photo of the biggest baby born by natural birth at 8.6 kg, recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records. The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact check
Newschecker first looked up the Guinness Book of World Records for the biggest baby ever born, which led us to this entry on the heaviest birth. According to the record, “Giantess Anna Bates (née Swan) (Canada, b. 6 August 1846; d. 5 August 1888), who measured 241.3 cm (7 ft 11 in), gave birth to a boy weighing 9.98 kg (22 lb) and measuring 71.12 centimetres (28 in) at her home in Seville, Ohio, USA, on 19 January 1879,” which is heavier than the weight specified in the claim. The baby, who was not officially named but just referred to as “Babe”, sadly died 11 hours later, the write-up added.
The article lists out other cases of heavy births, none of which mentioned an 8.6kg baby, raising our doubts.
Newschecker ran a reverse image search, which led us to numerous posts attaching the same photo claiming a different weight (7.5kg). The posts, which have been viral since 2017, can be seen here and here.
A keyword search for “8.6kg baby biggest” led us to this news report, dated August 28, 2014, stating that Indonesia’s heaviest-ever newborn named Akbar came into the world at a record 8.6 kg (19.2 pounds). The report, which features a photo of the newborn, also stated, “Guinness World Records cites the heaviest baby as being born in the U.S. in 1879, weighing 23.75 [10.7kg] pounds. However, it died 11 hours after birth. The book also cites 22.5-pound [10.2kg] babies born in Italy in 1955 and in South Africa in 1982.” We did not find any news report featuring the viral photo.
Result: False
Sources
Guinness Book of World Records write-up
AKI press report, August 28, 2014
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
