A healthy baby was delivered mid-flight last week by a Frontier Airlines flight attendant. The unusual birth, which has been reported in several US media outlets, happened on a flight between Denver and Orlando, as announced by the airline on Facebook on May 17th. Shakeria Martin (27), who was 37 weeks pregnant, had gone to sleep when she suddenly woke up with strong cries.
When the cabin crew found neither midwives nor others on the plane who had experience receiving children, they rolled up their sleeves, collected medical equipment and led Martin to the back of the plane while the pilot began preparing for an emergency landing at Pensacola International Airport, northwest Florida.
Flight attendant Diana Giraldo (35) was among those who helped with the birth, and whom the airline has praised in a Facebook post for behaving exemplary and calm. “I’m a big sister. I saw that this young woman was scared and uncomfortable. There was no room for doubt, I just had to make sure to be there for her,” Giraldo told US Today.
Diana Giraldo went above and beyond after the completion of the flight to coordinate the return to Orlando. The whole crew really did a great job.
Frontier Airlines
The cabin crew took Martin to the toilet on the plane, and shortly after, the baby (a little girl) was born. “I quickly took off my jacket, to have something to pack the baby in, it was barely time to receive her,” said Giraldo.
But the drama was not over yet. They saw that the baby was having trouble breathing. Giraldo and the mother worked together to get the child to respond. The mother talked to the baby and gave her oxygen while Giraldo massaged her gently on the back.
“It felt like an eternity, but eventually the baby gargled and began to breathe,” Giraldo was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. The plane then landed in Pensacola, where health personnel were ready to receive both mother and child, who are both healthy and fast. The little girl has been named Jadalyne with a unique middle name: Sky.
A special protocol applies when a baby is born while the mother is traveling. The 1961 UN’s International Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness was created to address this situation. It states that “birth on a ship or in an aircraft shall be deemed to have taken place in the territory of the State whose flag the ship flies or in the territory of the State in which the aircraft is registered, as the case may be.” According to Euronews, countries can still override the Convention. In that case, the baby would get the same nationality as the parents’.
