By Mark Thiessen
Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. — Please fasten your seat belt, make sure your tray table is in an upright and locked position, and prepare for delivery.
A passenger on a Delta Air Lines flight from Atlanta gave birth to a healthy 5-1/2 pound (2.5-kilogram) girl just before the Boeing 737 landed at Portland International Airport in Oregon on Friday night. Two paramedics who happened to be on the flight assisted, borrowing blankets from other passengers and using a shoelace to tie off the umbilical cord.
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Baby Brielle Renee Blair came in about two weeks ahead of schedule; the plane, about 20 minutes.
Her mom, Ashley Blair, who is from Tennessee, was flying to Oregon to be with her own mother for the birth, but didn’t quite make it. She went into labor about half an hour from Portland.
One of the paramedics, Tina Fritz, told The Associated Press on Monday that she and the other paramedic, Kaarin Powell, were returning home after vacationing in the Dominican Republic. They had been helping a nurse attend to the medical needs of another passenger at the back of the plane when a flight attendant asked them to check on Blair.
They found Blair was indeed in labor and contractions were getting close. It was a full flight with 153 passengers on board — soon to be 154 — so they began moving the passengers next to Blair back to their seats to make room for the delivery.
They asked flight attendants for blankets and an obstetrical kit, a sterile set of medical tools used in emergency childbirth. Fritz said they had to improvise when neither was available.
They got blankets from other passengers and a shoestring from a flight attendant to tie off the umbilical cord. Powell tore out one of her own shoes laces to use as a tourniquet to start an IV.
Then, Fritz recalled, the mother yelled: “OK, it’s time. I got to push.”
As she was doing so, flight attendants told Fritz and Powell they needed to sit, because the plane was about to touch down.
“We’re like, ‘No! No!’” she said.
Blair gave three “super, really good pushes, and the baby came out really quickly,” Fritz said. “It was nice.”
Powell cut the umbilical cord and sat down while holding the baby. Fritz sat down next to her, and the wheels hit the runway.
“Baby pinked up right away,” Fritz said. “She was gorgeous. Mom was a rock star.”
After the plane began taxiing to the jetway, they handed the baby to Blair, and everyone celebrated by taking photos.
A responding crew from Portland Airport Fire & Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was transported to a local hospital for observation,” Port of Portland spokesperson Molly Prescott said in an email to The Associated Press.
In a statement, Delta said a doctor and two nurses assisted flight attendants, but Fritz said there was no doctor and the only nurse stayed with the first ailing passenger. Delta didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking clarification.
“We extend our sincere thanks to the crew and medical volunteers on board who stepped in to provide care to a customer onboard prior to landing in Portland. The health and safety of our customers is always our top priority, and we wish the new family all the best,” Delta said in the statement.
Blair didn’t return messages from the AP. Fritz, who has been keeping in touch with Blair since the birth, said she’s been a little overwhelmed by all the attention.
“I feel like we’re friends now forever,” Fritz said.
