Traffic Exchange

Mar 11, 2013

Woman Gives Birth On Plane South Africa

Woman Gives Birth On Plane South Africa, A South African Airways Flight traveling from Johannesburg to New York City, made headlines when it reported having one extra passenger on board yesterday while at 38,000 feet over West Africa.

Fatawmatt Kaba, a 23-year old Angolan woman, went into labor four hours into the long 16-hour trip to JFK airport. Airline officials mulled over the decision to divert the plain, but after confirming that the child was actually being born regardless, the decision was made to continue the flight on schedule.

According to witnesses, the voice of the plane’s pilot came over the loudspeaker system and asked if there was a doctor on board? Fortunately, there were two doctors and a nurse on board the flight. One of the doctors, a pediatric anesthesiologist, Julie Williamson, was returning to the United States from a medical conference. “It was exhilarating,” said Williamson. According to Williamson the baby and mother were both fine.

Dr Williamson told the Daily News: ‘While there was a lot of discussion whether to divert the flight, she made the decision for us by saying, ”Push!” And when we checked, the baby was crowning, and she delivered him in two pushes.’

“You could see his little umbilical cord still attached,” passenger Jamahl Winters, 32, tells the Daily News. “It’s amazing. I didn’t think stuff like that really happened in real life. I thought it was something that happened in TV and movies.”

Many airlines do not allow women to fly when it is late in their pregnancies for this very reason. Fortunately for Fatawmatt Kaba, and her new baby Mamel Joella, there was a doctor on board their flight.

Mother and baby were taken to Jamaica Medical Center in Queens to be checked over after their arrival in the U.S. They are both said to be in a healthy condition.

Last year, first-time mum Katherine Oyedoh was 37 weeks pregnant when her water broke somewhere between Atlanta and Senegal.

According to the Daily Mail, a doctor on board came to her aid and Delta flight attendant Susan Carnes was given the role of assistant.

“I saw her and just the way she was leaned over and moaning, I just knew,” Ms Carnes told Fox News.

“I said, ‘do you feel like your water has broken?’ and she said ‘yes’, and that’s when I knew, okay we’re having a baby.

Fifteen minutes later, the plane landed after it was diverted to Dakar, Senegal and the mum and baby were taken to the hospital before being flown back to the US.

The baby’s father was at home in California at the time.