A woman gave birth while on a flight from Penang, northern state of Malaysia to Kuching, the state capital of Sarawak, the eastern state of Malaysian Borneo. Luckily a doctor was on board and helped in the delivery. The baby boy was born before the plane could land to a diverted airport in the country's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Mother and child was fine according to report. She was already well into her pregnancy and was feeling uncomfortable and yet the airline allowed her in.

I have heard of giving birth in water or at home but giving birth in airplanes is rare indeed because of strict airport checks. I think because it is a budget airline for domestic flights, checks might be a bit slack.

According to British Airways, which prohibits women from traveling in the last month of pregnancy, in-air births are rare. But they do happen: The airline's Web site reports about one delivery per year onboard a British Airways flight. Crew members are trained in birthing procedures in case one of their pregnant passengers can't wait until the plane lands.

Lately though the news of giving birth in a strange place has been reported and therefore I was not surprised when I heard about the birth in the air. Just last week in our local news a child was also delivered in a taxi on the way to hospital!

The Budget Airline AirAsia was quick to pounce on the news worthy event and got huge amount of free publicity by calling for a Press Conference and announced that the mother and child will be accorded free flights with that airline for life. Wow, that is a rather nice gesture and I wonder how many free flights holders are there in the world as giving birth in the air is rather uncommon, though not unheard of.

If you love to have free flights for life, give birth in an airplane! But first you must get pregnant! I find this e-book fascinating for those who want to get pregnant and can't.

Well if you like to experience giving birth in the air, board a budget airline in Asia! Make sure when you do, there is a midwife or a doctor is on board. Pray that the birth will be normal.

Updates: 30 Oct 2009 - Apparently if a baby is born in a plane, there have only been two previous recorded incidents where the baby was allowed free passage for life. This is a rarity, and NOT the norm. So we have now three free-flights babies. One was on board Thai Airways in 1995, the other was on board Asia Pacific Air Ways in 1996. So the moral of the story is - choose your airline carefully if you want your baby to have free flights.

Normal child birth is not risky, so I am told by my wife who was a midwife. She had assisted in thousands of birth before. Doctors have less experience than midwives when a woman is giving birth in a normal delivery. Doctors are only needed when complications arise and complications are rare. That is why she wonders why so many child births are now being done at the hospitals. An experienced midwife she says will be able to tell whether the delivery will be normal of not after having pre-natal care and routine examinations. She should then advise the mother whether she need to go to hospital with doctors for the delivery. If it is to be normal, home delivery can be done without much fuss by the midwife.