“A Tennessee mom just gave birth to a baby almost twice the size of an average newborn… because😱….

Shelby Martin welcomed her fourth son, Cassian, at TriStar Centennial Women’s Hospital in Nashville on July 29, 2025 her 30th birthday. He weighed an incredible 12 pounds, 14 ounces, making him the largest newborn delivered at the hospital in three years. Because doctors were concerned about the risks of delivering such a large baby, Shelby ultimately had a C-section at 36 weeks. Cassian spent his first 10 days in the NICU, where doctors monitored him because his lungs were still a little underdeveloped and his glucose levels were unstable. Shelby said nurses and doctors from around the hospital kept coming by to meet him because everyone was amazed by his size. His arrival was especially meaningful for the family because Shelby had experienced a pregnancy loss exactly one year earlier. Cassian was born on her 30th birthday, and she described him as the “brightest rainbow” they had been waiting for. Now home with his three older brothers, he has officially completed their family of six. 

Guinness World Records lists the heaviest recorded birth as a 22-pound (9.98 kg) baby born in Seville, Ohio, in 1879 to Anna Bates. The baby, known as “Babe,” was also 28 inches long!