Swedish mother gives birth on Finnair flight from Bangkok to Helsinki

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A Swedish baby’s life got off to an unusual start on Thursday November 20th. Instead of being born in a hospital, the baby girl was born on a Finnair flight from Bangkok to Helsinki at an altitude of 11 kilometres, somewhere over Kazakhstan.
      The baby’s mother had boarded the plane five hours earlier in Bangkok. At that point there were no signs of impending delivery.
     
The plane arrived in Helsinki at 18:20 in the evening, carrying one extra passenger. An ambulance was waiting on the airport apron in order to take the newborn baby and her mother to hospital.
      ”As far as I know, the mother and the baby are both doing OK. The delivery had been successful”, says Olavi Hämäläinen, Finnair’s aviation medical officer.
      However, the captain had already considered a stop-over in Moscow, but eventually decided that the flight could be continued.
     
Two doctors and two nurses who were among the passengers handled the delivery with the assistance of a doctor from the MedLink medical service who took them through the proceedings via satellite phone.
      ”A plane is a small place for delivery. This baby was born at the back of the plane, while the cabin staff was taking care of privacy. However, there is no possibility to relieve pain nor to deal with a difficult birth on an aircraft”, Hämäläinen notes.
     
It is not known yet how premature the Swedish baby’s birth was.
      Pregnant passengers beynd their 28th week of pregnancy must provide a doctor’s certificate confirming that the pregnancy has proceeded normally. However, pregnant passengers may travel up to the end of their 36th week, and on Finnair’s short domestic and Scandinavian flights they may travel up to the end of the 38th week, provided that the pregnancy has proceeded normally.
      In practice, the rule cannot be monitorede with any real accuracy.
      ”If someone wants to lie, she does so. However, a pregnant woman is hardly likely to want to hurt her baby”, concludes Hämäläinen, adding that flying cannot of itself trigger going into labour.
     
Giving birth on a plane is not so uncommon worldwide, but for Finnair the occasion was unique, since no birth has ever taken place on one of their flights before.
      The airline gave its firstborn a bouquet of flowers and her parents received complimentary return tickets to Bangkok.
     
As a bonus, the baby will have a special place of birth on her passport, as the United Nations recommend that if a baby is born during a flight, the place of birth should be the same as the plane’s place of registration.
      Finnair’s aircraft are registered in Finland.


Links:
  Finnair Group press release (20.11.2008): Baby girl born on Finnair flight

Helsingin Sanomat