And you thought you had a difficult birth story... Baby giraffes drop 5 feet at birth!

August 28, 7:40 PMEarly Childhood Parenting ExaminerAngele Sionna

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Did you know that baby giraffes fall five feet to the ground as their big "hello" to the world when they're born? It's true.

The Brookfield Zoo in Chicago just welcomed a bouncing baby boy giraffe (no pun intended) two weeks ago that entered the world like all other giraffes - diving out of his mom with his head tucked down, still inside his embryonic sac.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

"They come out in a diving position, kind of tucking their heads so they're not hitting head-first," says [Amy] Roberts, [the lead keeper for the zoo's Habitat Africa.] "Sometimes, the feet will hit the ground first, or on the back of the neck where it meets the shoulders."

The thud "kind of wakes them up," she says, helping to clear out lung fluid and get newborn giraffes breathing. Horses and cows are also delivered standing up sometimes, she notes, but with a fall far less severe.

The still un-named baby boy entered the world at about 150 pounds and was already a whopping six feet tall. And you thought your baby's birth was hard!

To top it off, giraffes are pregnant for about 14.5 months. Now your 9.5 months sounds kind of easy, huh? Mama mia!