Afghan woman gives birth to baby girl at 33,000 feet on evacuation flight to Britain

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An evacuation flight taking people to Britain landed with an extra passenger after the cabin crew delivered an Afghan mother’s baby girl mid-air on Saturday, according to a Turkish Airlines statement.</p>
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Soman Noori, 26, started having contractions during the Turkish Airlines flight to Birmingham. She gave birth at an altitude of 10,000 metres (33,000 feet) in Kuwaiti airspace.</p>
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In the absence of a doctor on the flight, the cabin crew assisted with the delivery of the baby girl, the airline said.</p>
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The parents named her Havva, which means ‘air’ in Turkish and Hindi. The father, 30-year-old Taj Moh Hammat and the two older children of the Afghan couple were on the same plane. Havva is the couple’s third child. Both mother and daughter are healthy, the statement said.</p>
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The plane, which was carrying Afghan citizens who had worked with Britain in Afghanistan, landed in Kuwait as a precaution but later continued on to its destination, Turkish Airlines said.</p>
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This is the fourth baby known to have been born to Afghan mothers who went into labour on evacuation flights.</p>
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Earlier on August 23, a woman evacuated from Afghanistan amidst the chaos in the country following the Taliban takeover had given birth to a baby girl on board a US military plane.</p>
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The US Air Force said the Afghan woman went into labour and began having complications on board the military plane flying to Ramstein Air Base in Germany from a staging base in the Middle East.</p>
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The aircraft commander decided to descend in altitude to increase air pressure in the aircraft which helped to stabilise her condition and save her life.</p>
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Medical personnel boarded the plane after it landed and delivered the baby in the C-17 aircraft's cargo hold.</p>