Going into labor early is a legitimate fear for anyone who is pregnant. You simply never know what could happen that could cause premature labor, putting you and your baby in danger. One woman learned how stressful going into labor before your due date can be, when she got on a cross-country flight at seven months pregnant.
Her harrowing in-air experience is certainly a birth story for the ages.
The mom had no idea what was about to happen to her
“I was having contractions and it woke me out of my sleep,” mom Shakeria Sullivan told People. “I had to call for the flight attendant. And that’s when everything started happening so fast.”
Sullivan was on a flight from Denver to Orlando in January of 2022, when she felt those contractions. She was only seven months pregnant at the time, and was traveling alone as she prepared to move to Orlando to be closer to her mother.
Thankfully, Sullivan had a super flight attendant by her side
Diana Giraldo was the lead flight attendant on Sullivan’s flight, and the one who responded to her distress call.
“She was worried that it was too early [to deliver] the baby,” Giraldo told the outlet. “She told me that she was terrified.” Giraldo has a sister who was around Sullivan’s age (she was 27 at the time), and treated the woman as she would have treated her sister.
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Sullivan's delivery was 'fast'
As she helped Sullivan, Giraldo “tried to stay very focused and present in the moment, to make sure I was giving her my best,” she recalled.
The other flight attendants made announcements asking for help, but no one stepped up. Giraldo went into go mode, moving Sullivan from her seat in the middle of the plane to the back where there was more room and privacy.
“The next thing you know, I am in the bathroom at the back of the plane and I’m giving birth,” Sullivan remembered. Quickly, her baby girl came out, with Giraldo catching her. “It was relatively fast,” she said.
What they went through bonded them forever
“Shakeria and I looked at each other, astonished that this just happened,” Giraldo shared. “I was like, ‘Congratulations, you’re a mom!’”
Worried that the plane would be too cold for the newborn, Giraldo wrapped the infant in her jacket. But “after a few seconds,” she says they “started realizing the baby wasn’t breathing.”
Quickly, Giraldo moved back into the plane. “As soon as she laid down,” Giraldo explained. “I started doing first aid on the baby. I told Shakeria to put the oxygen over the baby’s mouth.”
“The baby was tiny,” Giraldo remembered. “She fit in the palm of my hand.” Giraldo understood that Sullivan had just gone through something stressful. “To be in the position where you’re not sure whether or not your baby’s going to survive or not. I can’t imagine as a parent how that must feel,” she said.
The story has a happy ending
Forty minutes after Sullivan gave birth, the plane made an emergency landing at Pensacola International Airport, where Sullivan and her baby were met with a medical team ready to take them to the hospital.
“I am so relieved that everything worked out the way it did and that I had a good team of people by my side,” Sullivan told People. “They did whatever they could to make me feel comfortable.”
Two years later, Sullivan has an active toddler named Jadalyne Sky, who keeps mom on her toes. “She’s doing great,” Sullivan said. “She has a very unique personality. I always says it’s like a grown-up inside a little human being.”
Giraldo still keeps in contact with the family, and sends the little girl gifts for her birthday and Christmas: “She’s a firecracker.”
