A healthy baby girl was born on a Boeing 737 approximately 30 minutes before landing at Portland International Airport in Oregon.
Successful Delivery During Flight
A baby girl was delivered on board a Boeing 737, roughly half an hour before landing at Portland International Airport in Oregon. The delivery was assisted by two medical professionals.
Improvisation Required
Tina Fritz, one of the paramedics involved, stated that conditions on the plane were far from ideal and required improvisation. She and Kaarin Powell were alerted by a flight attendant while assisting another passenger.
“I asked for an obstetrics kit – a sterile set of medical instruments used in emergency deliveries – but there wasn’t one on the plane. There were also no blankets. We had to improvise. We took blankets from passengers, and the flight attendant gave us shoelaces, which we needed to tie off the umbilical cord,” Fritz recounted to the New York Post. “I cut the umbilical cord and wrapped the baby. Then we heard the plane was preparing to land. We grabbed the seat, but I didn’t even have time to buckle my seatbelt. After landing, we handed the baby to her mother.”
“Mom Like a Rock Star”
The baby was born approximately two weeks before her due date, and the labor lasted 20 minutes. Her mother, Ashley Blair, from Tennessee, was traveling to Oregon to be with her own mother for the birth, but did not make it in time.
The flight departed with 153 passengers and landed with 154.
Post-Delivery Assessment
“The baby immediately turned pink. She was beautiful. And her mother was like a rock star,” said Fritz.
Portland Airport Fire & Rescue confirmed that both mother and baby were healthy and transported to a local hospital for observation, according to airport spokesperson Molly Prescott.
Edited by Kamila Cieślik
