Going into labour can feel scary – but going into labour thousands of metres above ground can be downright terrifying.
This was the case for one woman who recently gave birth to a baby girl on board an American Airlines flight from Tampa, Florida en route to Pennsylvania in the US, Washington Post reports.
Nereida Araujo was trying to get to a family member’s home in time for Thanksgiving when her water broke.
“I was sleeping and I felt a pop in my lower back,” she said.
“I just felt liquid and I woke my husband up.”
Nereida was 38 weeks pregnant and had been cleared to fly by the airline and her doctor, PEOPLE reports.
But towards the end of the one-hour-and-39-minute flight, as the plane was heading toward a layover, her unborn daughter had other plans.
“Upon landing in Charlotte on Wednesday, November 27, American Airlines Flight 868 from Tampa, requested medical personnel due to a passenger who needed assistance,” airline spokesman Ross Feinstein said.
Paramedics and the local fire department helped deliver the baby on the jetway of Charlotte Douglas International Airport.
“We’re going to call her Sky,” Nereida told a local news outlet.
In a Facebook post, she thanked the pilot who landed her and baby Sky safely, the medics, a fellow passenger who helped her and her friends and family.
Sources: Washington Post, PEOPLE
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