Midair midwifery!

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TheGreenAnger
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Midair midwifery!

#1 Post by TheGreenAnger » Fri Dec 23, 2022 4:37 pm

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... y-to-truro
A woman has said she could not have felt safer as she gave birth, even though it happened on a rescue helicopter whizzing her from the Isles of Scilly to the Cornish mainland.

Jennie Trevithick was being flown from the island of St Mary’s to have her baby at the Royal Cornwall hospital in Truro but her labour progressed so quickly that baby Ebbyn arrived in the world before the coastguard helicopter could land.

Trevithick, 41, who runs a brewery on Scilly, had gone to St Mary’s hospital with her partner, Hayden Simpson, 38, when she began having contractions.

A midwife who saw her was worried there could be complications with the birth and suggested she be flown by helicopter to Truro – about 50 miles away.

It was not a completely new experience for Trevithick. She was flown to the mainland when she had her first child but her contractions stopped when the helicopter arrived and she made it to hospital. This time, the contractions carried on and her son Ebbyn was born safely before the helicopter could touch down.

After landing, Simpson, an artist and an air traffic controller at St Mary’s airport, cut the cord and the trio were transferred to the Royal Cornwall hospital. Mother and child are doing well.

Trevithick told the BBC: “Everyone said it must have been so scary being in a helicopter but actually I felt super safe – I was in the best place possible. I couldn’t have wished for anything more.”

She said that when she had her baby daughter, the arrival of the helicopter seemed to slow the birth. “With this one, I could hear the helicopter getting closer but there was no sign of anything slowing down.

“I knew we hadn’t landed yet and I reached down to feel the head and I was like, OK,” said Trevithick.

It took five hours from the contractions starting to the baby being born just after 2am on 5 December.

“It was a surreal experience,” she said. “I was holding the baby as we were landing and looked up and went: ‘Where are we? What is happening?’.”
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Re: Midair midwifery!

#2 Post by CharlieOneSix » Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:12 pm

I wonder what they put on the birth certificate as place of birth!
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Re: Midair midwifery!

#3 Post by G-CPTN » Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:28 pm

CharlieOneSix wrote:
Fri Dec 23, 2022 8:12 pm
I wonder what they put on the birth certificate as place of birth!
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Re: Midair midwifery!

#4 Post by tango15 » Sat Dec 24, 2022 10:54 am

Some years ago, when working in ops for a handling agent at MAN, we had a call from an inbound EasyJet flight from Marrakech. Apparently, they had a pregnant woman on board, who was beginning to show signs of giving birth fairly imminently. We alerted the on-site paramedics and as soon as the aircraft was at the gate, they boarded before we let the pax off. They determined that she was indeed about to sprog and led her off the aircraft. At this point, she collapsed and screens were quickly found while the child was delivered. Now, I saw this lady briefly as she came off the aircraft; a small squat woman who was very obviously pregnant. The question is - who allowed her to board at Marrakech in that condition? Our guess was that money had changed hands and blind eyes turned, because she wanted the kid to be born in the UK.

The cap'n was most unhappy and wrote a long report to the company, a copy of which I saw later. He pulled no punches, and I imagine there were repercussions at the Moroccan end of the operation.

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Re: Midair midwifery!

#5 Post by 4mastacker » Sat Dec 24, 2022 3:24 pm

Doesn't the aircraft crew have some discretion on whether or not to accept a passenger in such an advanced state of pregnancy?
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Re: Midair midwifery!

#6 Post by k3k3 » Sat Dec 24, 2022 3:35 pm

My wife was pregnant with our second child when we were moving from the UK to Germany, I was due to start at the new job three weeks past her due date so she went ahead of me. At that time (1983) you had to have two months left before popping or you couldn't fly.

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Re: Midair midwifery!

#7 Post by Rwy in Sight » Sat Dec 24, 2022 4:11 pm

So the perk of free flights for life is a tale, but the kid does take the nationality of the airline on which he/she is born?

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Re: Midair midwifery!

#8 Post by tango15 » Sat Dec 24, 2022 4:24 pm

4mastacker wrote:
Sat Dec 24, 2022 3:24 pm
Doesn't the aircraft crew have some discretion on whether or not to accept a passenger in such an advanced state of pregnancy?
Yes, they do and that was discussed afterwards. I think sufficient precautions had been taken to ensure it wasn't obvious (standing close together during boarding and a blanket over the lower torso and legs during the flight).

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Re: Midair midwifery!

#9 Post by Ex-Ascot » Wed Dec 28, 2022 11:39 am

After 7 months you have to have a doctor's note. This is up to check in and the gate to check.

You can of course fly aeromed with a medical team after that.

Had a few deaths on board but never a birth. Don't know about births but deaths are registered over the FIR you are in. If in international airspace it is a bloody long form. It is best that you only stop them breathing until over Dover.
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Re: Midair midwifery!

#10 Post by PHXPhlyer » Wed Dec 28, 2022 3:44 pm

As an EMT I was told that no one died in an ambulance. They only died once they reached the hospital.
Hence the term DOA.
Now days paramedics are allowed to pronounce death on scene.

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