Finally Mrs PeteDa is pregnant and we expect our new baby to arrive sometime late January.
She has questioned what typical birth weight a mixed baby will be, she tells me that 3kg is fairly typical for a TW/TW baby here in Taiwan.
I told her that 4 to 5kg is not uncommon back home (I will never forget the look of horror on her face when I said that)
Shes now thinking about a C-section rather than natural birth…she is not a big lass, even by TW standards
For all the people who have mixed babies here in Taiwan, what was your kids birth weight?
My son was 4.6, and my daughter a little more at 4.7.
congratulations
i dont think mixed, caucasion or otherwiese matters… its what the womans body makeup is that determines birthweight. i have many friends with mixed kids with big guys and samll wives, small husbands and big wives and every option in between. kids have ranged from 2.5 to 4.5 kg and across all the options mentioned previously.
she is taiwanese and thats what determines baby size more than your involvement! 
When my wife was pregnant with our first, the doc told us that there was no difference in baby weight for Chinese vs. mixed babies - but I have a strong suspicion that he was thinking there was no point worrying my wife.
My 2 were 4.1kg & 3.8kg, and I know several other mixed babies who were much heavier than average for Taiwan.
If the doc estimates the baby is over 4kg then he will probably offer to do a caesarian - which will be covered by normal insurance. Less than that, and he’s unlikely to recommend it (but will happily do it if your wife asks). They like caesarians here.
Incidentally, how much did you (and your wife) weigh as a baby? That may be an indicator.
My wife and I are Chinese and our first kid was 4 kg at birth. A caucasian colleague of mine, over 6 ft tall, with a caucasian wife of average North American height, gave birth to a girl at full term that weighed 2.25 kg. I think you get the point.
Worrying about this so far in advance will do you no good. Do an ultrasound at about 7-8 months along and the technician should be able to predict a birth weight for you based on the measurements. For both of my kids, the estimated birth weight based on the ultrasound was within 100 g. Darn good if you ask me!
BTW, we chose natural child birth for our first one and it still ended up as an emergency C-section as the kid just wouldn’t come out. It turns out that his head circumference was larger than most and almost off the charts. Oh well… 
Congratulations PeteDa!
When Mrs. Smell the Glove was about six months pregnant, the doc here told her she was putting on weight way too fast. By Western standards, however, she was doing just fine. She cut back a bit, but to be honest didn’t really watch her weight all that much (and towards the end she ate like a horse) - son came out 3472 g, his older sister was 3400. A lot of people here told us that’s “huge.” Hmm.
BTW, she had both naturally without a hitch (unless you count a rather long labor each time, no big deal). The docs were very much against C-section unless the mother’s health is at risk. If Mrs. PD is worried about pain, she can always consider an epidural.
Ahh the old child birth is painful routine. I’ve never yet heard a guy complain about it! Seriously guys we do all the work, the countless hours of pounding away risking heart attacks and other nasties and a few centuries ago women got together and decided to make out like it hurts so that we would feel better…bless em.
NT$100,000 in unmarked bills, delivered in a black bin bag to the trashcan in front of the 7-11 in Bitan or the wife gets a copy of this post.
I weighed 8 lbs 4 oz. Dunno what that is in new money though.
My wife’s first labor was 26 hours. The second was 22. The first time around, the anesthesiologist was indisposed, so the wife wasn’t able to get the epidural in time for it to make any difference. Since she wasn’t dilated enough, she had really intense contractions for hours on end. Then there was the month or so of postpartum pain from the episiotomy, early breastfeeding, afterpains from contraction of the uterus, etc. Makes getting kicked in the balls sound like paradise.
NT$100,000 in unmarked bills, delivered in a black bin bag to the trashcan in front of the 7-11 in Bitan or the wife gets a copy of this post.
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by which of course I meant that a long labor is not itself a reason to opt for a caesarian - it’s fundamentally different from, say, fetal distress, cord prolapse, uterine rupture, placenta previa, breech, antepartum hemorrhage, or failed induction. It’s not as though there’s much choice involved in how long a natural birth will take. While a lot of our friends have expressed surprise at how long both labors took, the babies were happy and healthy, and that’s what leads the wife to say “no big deal” in hindsight. 
3742 grams
i went to school with a guy that weighed 12 lbs 4 (5.6kgs) at birth. and yes - delivered naturally.
Congratulations! It’s so exciting to be expecting the first child. I wanted to add a woman’s experience/perspectiv, not sure if any of the previous posts were by women, I guessed not…
As already mentioned, there are so many factors that affect a baby’s size, it’s really hard to generalize. I am Western, my husband is Taiwanese. When I was pregnant with my first I put on A LOT of weight (OK, 20kg), and my son was just 3kg at birth. This time, at 37 weeks my daughter is estimated 3.3kg. Because of my online business, I get to talk about baby sizes with Taiwanese moms all the time, and I have found that some of those babies are really quite big at birth, not all small like we might imagine.
I had a drug-free, natural birth in a hospital here, and I am glad my doctor encouraged me to do so, even though at the time I cursed him, my husband and all men who give advice like “It will be over soon.” Or, “It doesn’t hurt that much, trust, me…” You go through the hours of pain, and it is over and your body recovers naturally in a reasonable amount of time. C-section just sounds like a hassle to me, the epidural, the recovery, the scar… it’s looking more and more likely that I will have to go through this and I am not looking forward to it. My doctor doesn’t want to do a c-section either, he was not happy to have to consider this and told me so, as he said, “It is surgery, shouldn’t be taken lightly, and is not an option I like.”
Anyway, have you found a doctor who will tell you all the pros and cons of both options, who will really explain all the details to you and your wife so you feel really comfortable about pregnancy and birth, and who will help your wife prepare for the birth with exercises, like swimming or those birth exercises you do in the water (not a waterbirth, but exercises to strengthen your muscles to help with the delivery), or prenatal yoga? The hospital I go to has all those classes and I am sure other hospitals offer them, too, they really seemed to help me with the first birth.
Our Sabrina was born full term (barely), 3 weeks before her due date weighing only 2.27kg. My wife delivered naturally, and tore a little. Even the small babies can cause problems, but nature always found a way. If my wife had carried Sabrina a few weeks longer as she was supposed to, who knows what would have happened. Of course today, if you look at the pics on our site, you can see the little cutie isn’t small at all.
Good luck, enjoy the pregnancy, because the birth is a roller coaster of emotion like you won’t believe, and parenthood…hahaha…good luck.
seriously?
Anyway -
I’m western, my boyfriend is taiwanese and I gave birth to a babyboy 13 days overdue, 10 minutes before they would order a C-section, no painrelifs (like epidural etc) and after 12 hours of laborpains. His weight was 3,400 kilo
Good luck with the pregnancy and birth!
ours was 4 kg … you might be more concerned with the size of the noggin in terms of doing a c-section or natural. the boy’s head was about 2 weeks ahead of the rest of him at full term. our doctor prefered natural, and had to use suction and pushing to help our guy’s head come out (i could almost hear the “put me back in!”). the rest was (relatively) easy.
jdson weighed in at 3600g.
He had a bad case of jaundice though and inhaled amniotic fluid, so he spent 11 days in neonatal ICU…but damned if he wasn’t the biggest fattest baby of the lot.
I was talking to a Taiwanese friend yesterday. He is of small build and 160cm tall. His wife is tiny, short by Taiwan standards and 40kg before having any children, 42kg after having three children, she only put 10-12 kg for each birth and had children weighing in at 3800g, 3700g, and 4000g…
That’s funny! My husband is Taiwanese 6 feet and I’m white 5’7 and our babies were both 3500 at birth.
Asiababy wins!
Asiababy wins![/quote]
er, you mean tinster?