A 23-year-old Canadian woman unexpectedly gave birth on an Air Canada flight en route from Calgary to Tokyo, Japan.
According to The Japan Times, the unnamed woman went into labour over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. Her baby girl was then delivered by a doctor who volunteered after flight attendants asked for medical assistance. The plane was then given priority landing 30 minutes ahead of schedule at Narita International Airport.
UPDATE: The father of the baby born on the flight has come forward, saying his 23-year-old girlfriend, Ada Guan, didn't know she was pregnant and that the birth came as a total shock to everyone involved.
“We just thought she had a bad stomach ache, or cramps or ulcer or something,” Wes Branch, of Victoria, B.C., told Global News.
“Her belly wasn’t even big. She just thought she was gaining a little bit of a weight. She didn’t think anything out of it.”
“I couldn't imagine, this just happened completely unexpectedly,” the anonymous father told Japanese reporters. “It turned out we have a little baby, beautiful girl. Her name is Chloe.”
After landing, the mother and newborn were immediately taken to hospital. Air Canada later tweeted that they are both doing well.
According to Air Canada’s website, expectant mothers can travel up to and including their 36th week of pregnancy, as long as they have no history of premature labour. It is unknown how far along the woman was when she boarded the Air Canada flight.
This isn’t the first time a surprise birth has happened onboard a plane in 2015. Back in March, a Qatar Airways flight heading to Doha from Miami had to make an emergency landing in Newfoundland when a woman unexpectedly went into labour.
Similarly, in January, a Jordanian woman travelling to New York from Amman gave birth while flying over the Atlantic Ocean.
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