A premmie baby boy has been born over Bass Strait during a medical transfer with the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
The ABC reports that the mum was on King Island in premature labour when the decision was made to transfer her to Launceston for medical support. The plane left the island at 3.46 and 15 minutes later she gave birth.
A spokesperson for the Launceston hospital confirmed mid-air births were highly unusual in Tasmania.
The ABC adds that the mother and her new son were admitted to the hospital and the baby remains in a critical but stable condition in the neo-natal intensive care unit.
He will be assessed today to see what further treatment is required.
In this mother and baby’s case it was lucky they were on a Royal Flying Doctor Service which meant they were catered for medically. But every year, mid-air births occur.
One million frequent flyer points
Earlier this year a baby girl was born on a flight between Dubai and Manila on the Philippine carrier Cebu Pacific. The mum had gone into labour four hours into the flight and five weeks early. Cabin crew were fortunate enough to find two nurses as passengers who were able to help out.
Baby Haven was born at 36,000 feet – and to celebrate her safe entry into the world, the airline gave her one million frequent flyer points.
The flight was diverted to Hyderabad, India, the airline said, to ensure the mother and baby received medical assistance for the premature birth.
And for anyone who loves a birth story, one of the passengers penned one and put it up on Facebook. Our favourite snippet from this lengthy status: “We only heard one semi-loud screech, and a few seconds later, there were tinier, cute screeches, and it was when we knew the baby was born. Luckily, she only had to push ONCE. Moments later, the woman got up to go back to her seat, baby in arms (mighty strong, I might say).”
Wonder of the RFDS has an air miles rewards program?
