Diana Giraldo described herself as a calm and soft-spoken person and said that’s how she reacted to a medical emergency when a passenger went into labor during a Frontier Airlines flight.
“As soon as her water broke it was just a few moments passed and then she was crowning,” Giraldo, a flight attendant with Frontier, said.
The surprise started in the middle of the night on Jan. 16 during a red-eye Frontier flight from Denver to Orlando.
“It was just really late, everybody was asleep; she just started feeling like she had some cramps some contractions,” Giraldo said.
[TRENDING: Waves of tropical moisture to dump BIG rain on Central Florida | Hanson, Boyz II Men and more announced in line-up for EPCOT’s Eat to the Beat Concert Series | Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]
Shakeria Martin felt contractions a few weeks before her due date.
“She was feeling pressure so at that point in time she asked me if she could go to the restroom,” the 35-year-old flight attendant said.
Seconds later Giraldo said Martin’s water broke and at that point she got in front of her, and her colleagues prepared for the birth.
“Everybody went and got everything that I needed. Alex helped me and she put blankets down in the back alley so that she could lay down,” she said. “The baby starts coming out, I put my hands underneath to support and it was fast, it was very, very fast.”
But then Giraldo said she noticed something wasn’t right.
“The biggest concern was when the baby came out, she wasn’t moving, " she said. “If she’s not breathing, she must have something in her airways, which I’m assuming is amniotic fluid, I’m not a doctor, I’m not any of that but I’m assuming that that’s what’s going on its blocking her airways.”
Giraldo said she decided to do light compressions while she rubbed the baby’s back to help stimulate the lungs and asked for an oxygen mask to put on the baby and used a suction bulb.
“I really don’t know how long it went by at that point, but it was a couple of minutes and then the baby started breathing and getting color back and she started moving,” she said. “I’m happy that I’m getting noticed for this but on a daily basis I talk about how important it was to have the right crew with me and how amazing they all were and how I wouldn’t have been able to do this without them.”
Giraldo said the crew paged multiple times to see if a medical professional was on board, and after several tries, a nurse came up and assisted with first aid after the baby was born. The baby’s mom named her newborn Jadalyne Sky.
Frontier said pregnant passengers should consult with their doctor on flying, especially in their ninth month of pregnancy.
Other airlines, including American and United, require a certificate from a doctor saying the passenger is fit to fly late in their pregnancy.