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The Afghan mother gave birth aboard a C-17 transport plane carrying evacuees fleeing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, US Army Captain Erin Brymer, a nurse from the United States, told CNN on Monday. Landstuhl Regional Medical Center at Ramstein US Air Base in Germany. .
Brymer helped give birth after the plane landed in Ramstein on Saturday, following a flight from a transit base in the Middle East.
The flight is part of a chaotic rush to transport people out of Afghanistan. Ramstein is one of the largest US air bases outside of the United States and has now been turned into a temporary transit point for people evacuated to the United States.
A total of 7,100 evacuees from Afghanistan have arrived at the base so far, the Ramstein Air Base public affairs office told CNN on Monday. The base is approaching its capacity of 7,500 people, the office said, after 36 flights carrying evacuees landed in recent days.
Brymer told CNN that she has delivered countless babies in hospital conditions, but it was her first “in the wild”.
She said her team had been told a plane was going to land in 10 minutes with a mother who had given birth.
When the team reached the plane, the mother was crowning the front of the plane, surrounded by a group of evacuees waving their shawls to protect her privacy. “It was a magnificent sight to see,” said Brymer.
The team assessed the patient and concluded that she had ‘passed the point of no return’, deciding to give birth directly on the plane. “This baby was going to be delivered before we could possibly move him to another facility,” Brymer said.
Brymer said she tried to reassure the woman by making eye contact with her and letting her know “everything is fine and it is safe to deliver this baby.” The medical team told her “we were ready for her when she was ready,” added Brymer.
The baby was born within 10 to 15 minutes of the plane landing, Brymer said. At the time of delivery, the plane looked “exactly like the photos you see” of the evacuation flights – packed with hundreds of people, Brymer added.
When asked when she realized everything was going to be okay with the baby and the mother, Brymer said, “When the baby came out crying. And we were able to put her on mom’s chest and [she was] breastfeed right away. I was like ‘Okay, we are fine here.’ ”
The pilot mistakenly announced that the baby was a boy, and Brymer said she had corrected him. “I mean, it’s a girl,” the pilot said afterwards.
For Brymer, “the whole week has been a whirlwind of emotions,” and the team continues to plan for other pregnant women who may need their help.
“I actually feel very honored and humbled to be a part of this mission. And just sort of… the sheer humanity of it,” Brymer said. “I mean, we’re people, they’re people. We both want the same things, strong moms and babies.”
Kabul airport has been the epicenter of a desperate rush for people trying to leave Afghanistan in recent days. On Monday, the number of people evacuated inside the facility stood at around 13,000, most of them Afghans, a source familiar with the situation at the airport told CNN. The source said the number of U.S. citizens at the airport is now a few hundred.
Sheena McKenzie of CNN contributed to this report.
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