DOCTORS in Moscow are congratulating themselves on the birth of a baby to a woman whose severe obesity would normally preclude conception.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper said the birth was personally overseen by Moscow's chief gynaecologist due to the weight of the 34-year-old first-time mum: 250kg or - as the newspaper helpfully put it - "a good quarter of a tonne".
The mother, identified only as Nonna M., gave birth to a healthy boy weighing in at a modest two kilograms after a five-hour labour that was artificially induced.
"It's really a striking case," said Irina Osadcheva, the deputy head of Moscow's Maternity Clinic Number 8, where the birth took place.
"The thing is that as a rule, women over 150kg have such severe hormonal irregularities they simply can't get pregnant," she explained.
The story may be of comfort to Russian authorities concerned at a demographic collapse in the world's largest country, where the population is falling by about a million a year.