Woman gives birth on plane to Wuhan

A WOMAN gave birth to a baby girl on a flight from southwest China's Sichuan Province to Wuhan with the help of some young female crew members who were trained to handle in-flight childbirth, China Eastern Airlines said yesterday.

Feng Yu, who was near the end of her term, felt the first contractions around 9am when on China Eastern's flight MU2652 bound for Wuhan, Hubei Province, from Chengdu.

The 23-year-old gave birth to a 3-kilogram baby in the air with the help of four attendants, Wang Ru, a press officer with the Shanghai-based airline's Wuhan branch, said yesterday.

"I was frightened when the baby's head came out but the body was still stuck. ... I asked myself to calm down and firmly held the woman's hand and tried hard to recall what I had learned from emergency training," said Zuo Lei, the purser of the flight who helped the delivery.

Feng's water had broken when her aunt called for help at 9:30am, 50 minutes into the two-hour flight, Zuo said.

After failing to find a medical worker among the passengers, the attendants vacated the last two rows of seats on the Boeing 737 and used pillows and blankets to set up a makeshift delivery room while preparing hot water, towels and first aid boxes, Zuo said.

"None of the attendants had experienced giving birth, but we had to try to help," Zuo said.

The baby's head emerged around 10am, just as the plane encountered some turbulence and bumped greatly, Zuo said.

"I shouted, 'one, two, three, breathe in ... one, two, three, breathe out' as we have been taught, while other attendants held her hands and supported the baby with blankets," said another attendant, Hang Lei.

The baby finally emerged crying about 10:30am, and passengers clapped and cheered, Hang said.

Zuo said she decided not to cut the umbilical cord onboard to avoid any infection because the plane was about to land in Wuhan in seven minutes.

On landing, medical workers boarded the plane and took Feng and the baby to nearby Wuhan Tongji Hospital.

"Both the mother and baby are in good condition," a doctor at the hospital told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

The parents yesterday named the baby "Angel," to thank the attendants for their help.

The four attendants received wide praise when one posted the story online.

Wang said the airline would reward them for their actions.

Many people asked how a woman due to give birth was allowed to board the plane. Women more than seven months pregnant are not allowed to fly.

Feng passed checks because she is thin and wore heavy clothes, said Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport officials.