Women should mostly be quite safe flying when 34 weeks pregnant, says a leading obstetrician.
Speaking after the death of a baby born on an Air New Zealand flight yesterday, Auckland University senior lecturer Alec Ekeroma said flying when 34 weeks pregnant would not normally be considered risky, unless there were earlier complications in the pregnancy.
Passengers watched helplessly as the New Zealand woman delivered her baby six weeks early as the flight from Brisbane approached Auckland airport yesterday afternoon.
Two nurses, passengers on board, helped the mother and crew with the unexpected birth but the baby did not survive.
The woman, who was travelling with her husband, was taken to Middlemore Hospital after the birth, where a spokeswoman said it appeared the baby had been stillborn. The mother is in a stable condition.
"We have no reason to believe that Air New Zealand was in any way remiss. They did everything they could."
Dr Ekeroma told the Dominion Post airlines had their own policies, but 36 weeks was the usual cutoff for pregnant women to fly.
They usually had to get a certificate from their doctors to show how far through their pregnancies they were.
"Some women do get on flights and don't tell airlines."
Because it was a relatively short flight, Dr Ekeroma said he would be surprised if signs of labour were not present before the flight left. But it depended on whether the woman had a history of fast labours.
A spokesman for Air New Zealand said it was too soon to say if the airline would review its pregnancy guidelines, which allow women to fly at up to 36 weeks.
"We don't know at this point how many weeks she was or what took place on the aircraft. At the moment our priority is to make sure the passengers involved and our staff are okay."
