Parents flying high as baby born at 30,000ft

[Ryan N]

http://www.news.com.au/travel/story/...014090,00.html

Parents flying high as baby born at 30,000ft
By Tara Ravens August 27, 2008 05:44pm

A COUPLE became parents high above Australia today when an Adelaide woman gave birth on a flight from India.

Parmajit Kaur, 29, was returning home after visiting family in India when she went into labour on the Cathay Pacific flight early today.

It was about 5.30am (CST), on the final leg of her trip from Hong Kong, that Ms Kaur gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Ms Kaur, who was 34 weeks pregnant, is understood to have gone to the toilet after pain in her stomach.

The plane then made an unscheduled stop at Darwin and mum and bub were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital (RDH), where they have spent the day resting.

"The baby is healthy, he is breathing on his own. Mum is jetlagged but stable," said a spokeswoman for RDH.

Ms Kaur's husband, Jagdar Jagdar, said he had spoken to his wife.

"I was wishing to see my wife at the time but all that happened, you know, very well," he said on ABC radio.

He said there were tears in his eyes when he was told about the birth of his son, although he had been "feeling very, very worried" about his wife.

Mr Jagdar said he was happy and relieved that his family was doing well, although he was anxious to get to Darwin to meet the new addition.

An Adelaide doctor who, along with three other medical practitioners, helped deliver the baby, said it was a smooth, "fun" birth.

"I got the operative end, one got the comforting end, the 'breathe, breathe, breathe' end, and the other got the looking-after-the-baby end," Happy Valley GP Judith Hamel said on the ABC.

"She was fortunate enough to have doctors on board the flight," said a spokeswoman for Darwin Airport.

The RDH spokeswoman said that although the baby was six weeks early he weighed 2.7kg and was breathing unaided in the hospital's special care nursery.

"Dad is over the moon and he has rung grandparents back in India to tell them the news," said the spokeswoman.

Despite an unusual entrance into the world, the baby will have Indian nationality.

Airlines have different policies on pregnant women travelling, with some banning them from flying for 30 days before the due date.

Others allow women to travel up to a week before.

[Adrian B]

and she was flying because???????

Most OB's recommend not flying after 30 weeks for obvious reasons. We drove to CBR on our doctors advice when my wife was 32 weeks, and bub arrived at 34 weeks.