A US mum flying from Utah to Hawaii has received quite the mid-air surprise! A newborn. Incredibly enough, she didn’t even know she was pregnant.
Her story and video of her son, Raymond Kaimana Wade Kobe Lavaki Mounga’s unexpected arrival, has now gone viral thanks to a TikTok video that captures the amazing mid-air birth.
A surprise plane birth
Lavinia Mounga was flying from Utah to Honolulu on 28 April with Delta Airlines when she went into labour, although she didn’t quite realise it.
On the flight with Lavinia were four trained medical professionals, including Hawaii-based Doctor Dale Glenn as well as three neonatal intensive care nurses.
As Glenn explains,
About halfway through the flight, there was an emergency call asking if there is a doctor on board and it was fairly urgent.
I let the flight attendant know that I’m a physician and she said we have a woman having a baby, so I hurried over to see what I could do.
I don’t know how a patient gets so lucky as to have three neonatal intensive care nurses onboard the same flight when she is in emergency labour, but that was the situation we were in.
The great thing about this was the teamwork. Everybody jumped in together and everyone helped out.”
Raymond’s birth goes viral
Baby Raymond was born premature, three hours away from the destination. Passenger Julia Hansen captured the action as it unfolded and later uploaded it to TikTok. As you do.
In the video, you can hear the newborn’s cries as the passengers erupted into cheers and applause. Naw! You can watch it below:
@juliabernice
It’s the ‘baby being born while we’re above the Pacific Ocean’ for me
♬ original sound – Julia Hansen
Great teamwork
As airplanes are not equipped with the instruments to care for a premature baby, the medical team had to improvise.
They ended up using a shoelace to tie and cut through the umbilical cord. To keep the baby warm, they used microwaved bottles and measured baby’s heart rate through an Apple watch.
Ah, technology.
Born 12 weeks early
While Raymond required resuscitation at birth, he is now “doing great”.
Doctors believe Raymond was born at 28 weeks gestation and will remain in hospital until end of May/June.
Support flows for Raymond
To help with the unexpected costs and support Raymond, Lavinia’s sister has set up a GoFundMe account.
Our miracle baby nephew was born with 3 hours left on our flight and was such a strong trooper. Our sister did not know she was pregnant so she was just as shocked as the rest of us when our nephew was born!”
Welp, that’s definitely a birth story to tell at Raymond’s 21st! A massive congrats to Lavinia and a shout-out to the medical team who took control.
