Watch mom snuggle newborn after United crew helps her deliver baby on flight to DC
Spirits were high when United Airlines flight 997 landed at a Washington, D.C., airport on Sunday, Jan. 30, after an emotional trip. Hours before landing, crew members and passengers jumped into action to help a mother deliver her baby boy when she went into labor.
Fortunately, a physician and a nurse were traveling on the plane, and one flight attendant was a former nurse, CNN reported.
The 11-hour flight from Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana, to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C. was a little more than halfway through the trip when the woman went into labor, according to CNN. She gave birth to the baby boy about two hours before the flight landed.
The mother wasn’t expecting the delivery until late February, according to ABC News. Dr. Stephen Ansah-Addo, a dermatology resident at the University of Michigan; a nurse from Ohio; and a flight attendant who used to be a nurse worked quickly to make a space on the floor of the cabin for the delivery.
“I couldn’t believe it was happening,” Ansah-Addo told ABC News. “But I was trying to stay calm. ... This is someone that really needed help, because there was nobody else there. This is the kind of medicine where you can make a difference in people’s lives.”
The makeshift delivery team told ABC News that they improvised a bit, using a string to cut the umbilical cord since they didn’t have a clamp available.
After the delivery, some passengers shared their account of the flight online, including broadcaster Nancy Adobea Anane.
”Thank you so much to the crew, the doctor and the nurse,” the mother tells Anane in a video as she cradles her newborn.
In another video, Anane sits with another passenger, Tiani Warren.
Warren told CNN that she was sleeping when she woke up to the woman moaning and the doctor putting an IV in her behind Warren’s seat. She reflected on the experience with Anane after the delivery.
“I’m excited, I’m stressed out, exhausted but mostly thankful the baby and mom are doing fine,” Warren said in the video. “This is something I never, ever imagined happening, and it did.”
Warren posted videos of the flight attendants holding the new baby, who they said was named Nolan, and the nurses and doctor recovering after the delivery for the end of the flight.
The mother and baby were met by medical professionals and a balloon from United when they deboarded the plane, Warren’s video shows.
According to guidelines from United Airlines, if passengers are traveling and have reached their 36th week of pregnancy, they need an obstetrician’s certificate confirming that the passenger is safe for travel and the baby’s estimated birth date must be after the date of the last flight on the itinerary.
“We’re grateful to our crew and customers who assisted in bringing this precious cargo into the world mid-flight,” United Airlines said on Twitter about the delivery.
This story was originally published February 1, 2022 at 2:23 PM with the headline "Watch mom snuggle newborn after United crew helps her deliver baby on flight to DC."
