A flight from Mexico to Atlanta unexpectedly became the birthplace of newborn Analia, when mom Liliana Acevedo went into labor a month early in mid-flight.
Atlanta Fire Rescue firefighters were waiting for the plane at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after air traffic control received a call for EMS (emergency medical services) from the pilots. The firefighters swiftly entered the aircraft and helped deliver the baby as soon as it landed.
Acevedo and her husband Edgar from North Carolina had been on a connecting flight, with Atlanta planned to be a simple layover. However, simple it was not.
As reported by Fox 5, Acevedo's due date was December 23, but an hour into her November 14 flight, she felt contractions. A nurse on the flight took the mom to the back of the plane and gave her oxygen, but was encouraged to try not to push, with the plane still being three and a half hours away from stopping.
"He was like don't try to push because if you push more, the baby will come out," Acevedo told Fox15. "So I held the contractions for like three hours and 30 minutes on the way."
"They checked me, they're like 'are you ok?'," she said. "I said, 'no I have really bad contractions.'"
Firefighter Wanetta Nash recounted seeing the plane landing faster than normal to Fox 5: "When we got to the gate, we noticed that the airplane was coming in exceedingly fast."
After arriving onto the plane, firefighters soon realized their only option was to deliver the baby right there and then, aboard the plane. Just moments later a reassuring cry came from the back of the plane, leading to applause from the whole cabin.
"One of the flight attendants got on the microphone and she was able to say, 'hey we have a baby girl!'" said Nash. "Everybody started clapping. I mean, the pilots were high-fiving. It was a very special occasion."
The baby girl arrived weighing five pounds and four ounces, and on Tuesday, the new parents were able to thank the firefighters in person.
Although she's still in an Atlanta hospital as of publication, the parents told Fox 5 she could be allowed back home to North Carolina as early as Wednesday.
In July, Newsweek reported on another bizarre birthing location—a gas station toilet. Mom Kaitlyn Mancera, went viral online after sharing her rather unique tale.
The couple had been driving to her delivery hospital when they pulled over to a Pilot Flying J gas station, after Mancera said she needed to go.
She was dubbed "superwoman" by her husband Sergio Mancera, who had been unknowingly waiting in the car for her while she gave birth.
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