Baby on board: Paramedics help passenger give birth just before flight lands

Brielle Renee Blair was born on the plane (Tina Fritz/AP)

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 in the US gave birth to a healthy 5.5lb girl just before the Boeing 737 landed at Portland International Airport in Oregon on Friday.

Two paramedics who happened to be on the flight assisted, borrowing blankets from other passengers and using a shoelace to tie the umbilical cord.

Baby Brielle Renee Blair came in about two weeks ahead of schedule; the plane, about 20 minutes.

Her mother, Ashley Blair, from Tennessee, was flying to Oregon to be with her own mother for the birth. She went into labour about half an hour from Portland.

Ashley Blair holds her daughter Brielle (Tina Fritz/AP)

One of the paramedics, Tina Fritz, told The Associated Press that she and the other paramedic, Kaarin Powell, were returning home after holidaying 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 Ms Blair.

They found she was indeed in labour 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 her 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. Ms 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. Ms Powell tore out one of her own shoes laces to use as a tourniquet to start an IV.

Then, Ms Fritz recalled, the mother yelled: “OK, it’s time. I got to push.”

As she was doing so, flight attendants told Ms Fritz and Ms Powell they needed to sit, because the plane was about to touch down.

“We’re like, ‘No! No!’” she said.

Ms Blair gave three “super, really good pushes, and the baby came out really quickly”, Ms Fritz said. “It was nice.”

Ms Powell cut the umbilical cord and sat down while holding the baby. Ms Fritz sat down next to her, and the wheels hit the runway.

“Baby pinked up right away,” Ms Fritz said. “She was gorgeous. Mum was a rock star.”

After the plane began taxiing they handed the baby to Ms Blair, and everyone celebrated by taking photos.

A responding crew from Portland Airport Fire and Rescue “found the mother and baby healthy, and the new family was taken to a local hospital for observation”, Port of Portland spokesperson Molly Prescott said.

In a statement, Delta said a doctor and two nurses helped flight attendants, but Ms Fritz said there was no doctor and the only nurse stayed with the first ailing passenger.

“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 a statement.