Doctor helps woman deliver premature baby mid-air

New Delhi, Oct 10: Not every child ends up being born in hospitals, some of them take birth in midair too.

The mother flying from Delhi to Bengaluru, October 7 will always remember the flight she took and the doctor who gave birth to her baby in flight.

Dr Sailaja Vallabhaneni, who helped a woman deliver a baby on an IndiGo flight, said she noticed bloodstains on the floor when the woman started walking towards the toilet and realised her water had broken. She helped her deliver in the bathroom.

"I placed the baby on serving table...The cord was cut using scissors sterilised with hand sanitiser," Vallabhaneni said to indianexpress.com.

Shortly after the Indigo flight took off around 5.30 pm from the capital a pregnant woman had prematurely gone into labour, and she was experiencing pain and discomfort.

That was when Dr Sailaja Vallabhaneni, Consultant Foetal Medicine, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Old Airport Road, Bengaluru stepped in. "I was afraid she may be aborting, because of the symptoms common during this gestational age and at a high altitude," she said.

"I enquired about her medical history, and of any episode of spotting or bleeding, to which the woman replied that she had severe gastritis. Suddenly, she winced and said she had to use the bathroom. When she started walking towards the toilet, I noticed there were blood stains on the floor; her water had broken," the doctor shared.

Since she was already wearing gloves, a mask and a face shield, Dr Vallabhaneni jumped into action and helped the woman deliver the child in the bathroom!

"Co-passengers were kind enough to share their shawls and bedsheets to cover the baby and keep it warm," the doctor said.

With the mother and her boy both doing okay, the doctor told the pilot that there was no need to make an emergency landing in Hyderabad.

"You cannot expect a delivery room-like setup in an aircraft, so I had to improvise. But, a few things like Betadine, spirit, a small suture material, a few clamps and other such things may be available, not the entire maternity kit, because it would not be feasible," she told.