The mother went into labor at just 35 weeks pregnant, but luckily there was a doctor on board, and all ended well.
Imagine going into labor with about a month to go before the due date and, to boot, being 10,000 meters high in mid-flight between Doha, Qatar, and Entebbe, Uganda.
That’s what happened to an unidentified Ugandan woman on December 5, 2021. The trip takes about six hours, and the plane had left an hour ago when little Miracle Aisha decided to see the world.
Luckily, mother and daughter were able to count on special help. Canadian doctor Aisha Khatib was on board and decided to help when she heard the famous phrase “Is there a doctor present?”.
It was she who used social networks to describe the experience, at least peculiar, of assisting a birth in the heights. According to the doctor, there was a crowd around the mother, and when she got close, the baby’s head was already coming out.
In an interview, she said that she was mainly concerned with three things: supporting the newborn so that she would not be injured as soon as she left her mother’s womb, preparing the area with blankets so that they would make as little mess as possible and how to act if you do not have access to the necessary medical instruments for the postpartum period.
Luckily, there was also a pediatrician and a nurse on board, and that made everyone feel even more relaxed about the care right after the birth.
“I managed to cut the cords, cut the umbilical cord. And I checked the baby. She was crying and flushed, so I gave her a good rub and passed her on to the pediatrician. Mommy looked good – she looked stable,” she recalled.
“So I was like, ‘Congratulations, it’s a girl.’ Then the entire plane started clapping and cheering, and I was like, ‘Oh right, I’m on a plane, and everybody is watching this.’”
The new mom named her daughter after Dr. Khatib. Her first gift was a gold necklace the doctor was wearing with “Aisha” written in Arabic.
“I thought I’d give it to her, and she’ll have a little token of the doctor that delivered her 35,000 feet in the air while flying over the Nile,” she said.
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