Dylan Wagemans
BELGIAN Member of Parliament Kathleen Depoorter and her son helped a woman give birth during a Ryanair flight to Spain.
The plane, which had departed from Brussels and was en route to Castellon near Valencia, was flying over France when the pregnant passenger went into labour.
“I saw a woman come out of the bathroom and explain to the stewards that she was feeling unwell,” said Depoorter.
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“When I heard her say that she has been pregnant for 37 weeks, all of my alarms started going off.”
Depoorter, who studied pharmacy, has some medical knowledge – and her son is a doctor.
“I asked the pilot to make an emergency landing, and he complied,” she said.
Flightradar24 data shows that the plane landed in the French city in Limoges.
“The woman was having contractions every seven minutes, which would have been enough time to land,” Depoorter explained.
“But everything went so fast that we had to construct a maternity ward in the back of the plane and she gave birth there.”
As it turned out, more medical professionals were onboard.
A midwife helped manage the delivery of the placenta, and a pediatrician checked the baby’s health.
Both the mother and her newborn daughter are doing well and are currently receiving care in a French hospital.
“Helping deliver a baby, 25 years after the last time I gave birth myself, is a very special feeling, especially on an airplane,” Depoorter concluded.
