A baby boy was born as the AirAsia flight made its final approach to Kuching.

Liew Siaw Hsia, 31, gave birth on budget carrier AirAsia’s flight from Penang to Kuching on Wednesday.

Nazatul Mokhtar, a spokesman for the airline, said on Friday that the flight had been diverted to nearby Kuala Lumpur for an emergency landing when Mrs Liew started labor pains. He said Mrs Liew was 27 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks short of the full term.

A doctor on the flight helped the woman deliver her son while the plane was still 2,000 feet in the air in its final approach to land.

Mother and son were rushed to a nearby hospital after the plane landed, an airline statement said. Their condition late on Friday was unknown, though Mr Nazatul had said earlier that they were both in good shape.- Daily Telegraph

An Associated Press article tells us more about the mother.

Liew Siaw Hsia had been flying home Wednesday after quitting her job as a waitress when she started having labor pains.

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Liew, a 31-year-old divorcee, said she plans to raise the boy on her own in her home state of Sarawak on Borneo island.

Liew is a single mom.  She may not much use for AirAsia’s free plane ticket offer.

She and the airline said she had been 27 weeks pregnant, 11 weeks short of the full term. The airline, AirAsia, said it would give Liew and her child free flights for life.

Liew told The Associated Press that doctors at a hospital outside Kuala Lumpur have told her they do not expect any health complications and she can take her baby home Monday or Tuesday. She said her boy’s current weight was about 7 pounds (3.2 kilograms).

Huh? The Associated Press should fact check this article written by Sean Yoong out of Kuala Lumpar.  Why do I say this? Here are the reasons-

*- A lungs of a  baby at 27 weeks gestation are not mature.  The child would need breathing assistance for over a month till their lungs were more developed.

*- Babies born at 27 weeks spend at least 8 weeks/two months in a NICU aka neonatal intensive care unit.  My son Daniel was born at 28 weeks and five days. I know more than a little bit about this subject.

*-  No baby born at 27 weeks would weigh 7 lbs. A baby at 37 weeks is considered slightly premature but is often able to come home right away or after a slightly longer hospital stay than a baby born at full term.

A 37 week gestation child could well be born at 7 lbs weight.

A hospital doctor declined to comment, saying it was not their policy to speak about patients.

A specialist on babies and children at a Kuala Lumpur private clinic said it was possible for a baby born at 27 weeks to be healthy and as heavy as Liew’s. He asked that he and his clinic not be identified because Malaysian doctors are supposed to get health ministry approval before making statements to the media on public cases.

This ‘specialist’ is either a fake or a crank. No perinatologist would say a baby born at 27 weeks can be that heavy.  Did Sean Yoong talk to the NICU janitor for his article?