Premature baby delivered by Stoke-on-Trent couple on nine hour flight 35,000ft in the air

A baby was successfully delivered at just six months by a couple from Stoke-on-Trent on board a plane to the Philippines last week.

Sheryl and Ruel Pascua, from Newstead, were 35,000 feet in the air when a woman at the end of her second trimester suddenly went into labour.

The couple, who work as nurses at NG Healthcare, in Trentham, helped deliver the premature baby when the cabin crew put out an urgent call for medical professionals on the plane.

En route for a holiday, the couple didn't hesitate to help the mum-to-be, also named Sheryl, on August 2nd.

It was just 20 minutes into the couple's second flight from Kuwait to Manilla before new mum Sheryl went into labour. They had already travelled nearly seven hours from London Heathrow to Kuwait.

Two other nurses were on board and helped Sheryl and Ruel deliver the baby boy.

“It was the most thrilling, exciting and at the same time the most humbling experience"

Sheryl Pascua said she "was surprised and thrilled that the mother was already at the crowning stage," when conducting the internal examination.

"I shouted for Ruel to help and within a few moments to coach and prepare her, the baby boy came out."

She added: "He caught the baby whilst I attended and focused on the mother and the placental delivery.

"I was a bit nervous as it was pretty scary and beyond every medical personnel’s comfort.

"The baby was only roughly 24-weeks-old so the size was the same size as the palm of my husband, he was very tiny."

It was the first time Sheryl had delivered a baby on board a plane.

“It was the most thrilling, exciting and at the same time the most humbling experience of me and my husband in our entire nursing profession.

"We attend to patients’ needs three to four times a week but this experience is so different and unique."I am so honoured and privileged that God has orchestrated these things to happen and use me, my husband and Carlos Abungan, another nurse from London, to save the baby and mother for the whole entire nine-hour journey."Sheryl said she keeps in touch with baby boy's mum after being rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit at a local hospital when they landed.

The boy, who was only 24-weeks-old when he was born, is understood to be doing well.