She didn't know she was pregnant: passenger gives birth on Delta flight

She didn't know she was pregnant: passenger gives birth on a flight Delta. It sounds like an urban legend, yet it really happened.

The woman, Lavinia "Lavi" Mounga, was on board a plane took off from Salt Lake City and headed for Honolulu. She was overjoyed about her vacation and had no idea that she was expecting. Then, suddenly, her water broke and contractions set in. An event that left other passengers astonished, but which had a happy ending: the birth of the little one Raymond.

Passenger gives birth on a Delta flight - The Story

Raymond was born 29 weeks old at an unspecified point over the ocean. Bringing him into the world was a doctor who-luckily and coincidentally-was on the same plane as his mom. Instead, capturing the moment, and sharing it on TikTok, was another traveler-Julia Hansen. For, that birth over the Pacific involved the entire plane. Not just the doctor, the Dr. Dale Glenn of GlennStraub Medical Center and North Kansas City Hospital, but the entire (and incredulous) crew.

"About halfway through the flight there was an emergency call, a situation I have experienced several times before: it happens often that someone calls for a doctor," Dr. Glenn recounted. "This time, however, I immediately knew it was an emergency. I told the stewardess that I was a doctor, and she informed me that she had a woman on board who was giving birth." As in the best of fairy tales, also on the plane were three neonatal intensive care nurses. A kind of mobile delivery room, as if by a twist of fate. Together, the improvised team delivered the baby and watched over him for three hours until they landed in Hawaii. Once on the ground, the infant and mother were taken for assessments to Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children in Honolulu. That's partly because the baby was premature and was born with decidedly improvised instrumentation (the little heart was monitored with an Apple Watch, the umbilical cord was tightened and cut with shoelaces).

"I have no idea how this could have happened-I didn't know I was pregnant," the mother said when she was joined by reporters outside the neonatal intensive care unit, where Raymond was admitted to adjust to his new life.

Woman gives birth on Delta flight to Honolulu https://t.co/Df9CkYNMaY

- WJHL (@WJHL11) May 3, 2021

What happens when a woman gives birth on board?

In fact, witnessing an in-flight birth is not a very rare occurrence. It may happen that a woman does not know she is pregnant, or that she gives birth before (well before) her due date. This, although airlines generally provide for some restrictions: American Airlines Requires that there be a doctor on board if delivery is expected in the next 30 days, United Airlines asks to show a medical certificate if you intend to fly in the ninth month. Delta, on the other hand, has no restrictions. But the passenger on the flight to Honolulu did not even know she was expecting.

In the event that a woman goes into labor during the flight, there is not much to be done. The crew is certainly not equipped to deliver a baby: will then ask if there is a doctor on board and consider whether an emergency landing is appropriate.

What is the citizenship Of a baby born in flight? The question is complex. If it is born while the plane is flying over the ocean, it can either take the mother's citizenship or the airline's. If it is born while flying over land, it depends on the rules of the individual state: some grant citizenship to babies born in its airspace and some do not. For example, the United States grants U.S. citizenship to babies born in flight to foreign parents.

The fact that being born on a plane guarantees free flights for life with that company, on the other hand, is an urban legend. The only companies to offer such a privilege are Thai Airways, AirAsia and Virgin Atlantic.

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