Woman Gives Birth on Plane at 30,000 Feet With Some Unexpected Help
Can you call it a water birth when the delivery takes place over the Pacific Ocean?
A doctor from Los Angeles on her way home from her honeymoon spring into action and delivered a fellow passenger's baby after she went into labor while on a flight from Taiwan to L.A. The woman was eight weeks away from her due date.
When flight attendants asked if there was a doctor onboard, Dr. Angelica Zen, a resident physician at UCLA, volunteered her services, even though she had never delivered a baby:
My training is in internal medicine pediatrics so we do adults and kids but really no pregnant woman at all, so since my training we haven't done much OBGYN. I was a little bit nervous."
No matter -- Zen, who was coming home from Bali with her new husband, helped bring t he baby into the world.
The pilot altered the route to get to the nearest airport, which was is in Anchorage, Alaska.
Zen had never delivered a baby by herself, but she didn't hesitate to help.
Meanwhile, instead of continuing to California, the captain changed course and headed to the nearest airport, which was Anchorage, Alaska, three hours away.
Zen said, "I had very limited supplies with me and it was very difficult. We had to work under very constrained circumstances."
Interestingly, it's not clear where the baby, a girl, was born, so it's not known if she's a U.S. citizen. Being born within 12 miles of Alaska automatically makes her one.