TRAVEL: GLOBAL MYTHS NO 16
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Your support makes all the difference.A pregnant woman had to make an urgent flight from Manchester to Canada to visit her sister who was recovering from a major operation. She decided to go alone, leaving her partner and young son back home. Because her pregnancy was so advanced, the airline insisted a doctor examine her before the flight. She did so and was duly pronounced fit to make the trip. She packed her bags and made her way to the airport where airline staff helped her into her seat.
Alas, about two hours into the flight her waters broke and she felt the first pangs of labour. She called the stewardess. The captain decided to turn the plane around. It was clear, however, that the big event was going to happen before the plane made it back and they decided to clear the first-class section of the plane, moving passengers back into economy to allow the woman at least some privacy. With the help of a doctor who was travelling on the plane as a passenger, a healthy baby girl was delivered about half an hour before the plane finally made an emergency landing.
The distressed woman was helped from the plane into an ambulance with her newborn baby, clearly upset at the embarrassment and commotion. One of the stewardesses who had assisted the birth, desperately trying to calm her down, said: "Look, love, it could have been much worse. I've got a colleague who was on a packed flight last year. The poor woman on that flight didn't even have any privacy. She gave birth in the aisle in front of all the other passengers."
"I know," sobbed the distressed passenger. "That was me too!"
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