A US Army nurse and two others helped deliver a baby girl inside a plane full of 300 Afghanistan evacuees shortly after it landed in Germany on Saturday.
Registered nurse and US Army Capt. Erin Brymer was called to help 10 minutes before the C-17 transport aircraft landed at the US Ramstein Air Base in Germany after the unnamed Afghan woman went into labor.
The plane flew in from Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, part of the US's hurried efforts to evacuate translators, allies and others who helped the US during their 20-year occupation of the country against the Taliban, which has now taken over the country.
Upon landing, Brymer and two people from the 24/7 women's health team helped deliver the baby on the plane as it sat on the tarmac at Ramstein.
She said afterwards: 'I think all Army medical personnel are trained to work … in a field hospital setting. It was the coolest moment of my life.'
US Army Capt. Erin Brymer said the woman who gave birth was 'past the point of no return' by the time she reached the C-17 transport aircraft at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany
The woman gave birth on a plane of 300 people fleeing Afghanistan as it falls to the Taliban. She is pictured being stretchered off afterwards
Airmen from the 86th Airlift Wing carry the new mother from the plane on Saturday
'We were past the point of no return,' she told military newspaper Stars and Stripes.
The mother - whose identity is not known - was sitting on a shawl near the doors of the aircraft, Brymer said.
'It looked just like the picture in the news,' she said. 'It was a plane full of 300 people sitting on the ground.'
Four Afghan women held up shawls for privacy as the woman crowned at the front of the plane.
Brymer was helped by Maj. Kristin Blouin, an Air Force neonatal nurse, and Staff Sgt. Lamaar Melvin, an aerospace medical technician.
'I was just trying to make eye contact with her and let her know that everything was OK, that she can deliver this baby safely and that we were ready for her,' Brymer said, adding that conditions aboard the evacuation plane are not ideal for pregnant women.
'A lot of these women have not eaten and are not well-hydrated,' she said. 'And that can definitely induce labor.'
Brymer called the delivery 'picture perfect,' and said the best moment was 'when the baby came out screaming and we were able to put her directly on Mom's chest and get her breast feeding right away.'
The baby was born within 10-15 minutes of the airplane touching down at 3.19pm local time.
The head of US Transportation Command, Gen. Steve Lyons, told reporters Monday that two other babies have been born at Ramstein, according to CNN, though he offered no details.
'Just an incredible, incredible operation ongoing, you know. Just impressive work by our great airmen,' Lyons said.
Brymer said helping deliver the baby girl was the 'coolest moment of my life'
U.S. Army Capt. Erin Brymer, a clinical staff nurse in the Labor & Deliver ward at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, said she was 'honored' and 'humbled' to be part of the birth
The identity of the mother, seen above, is not known. Brymer says conditions aboard the plane were not ideal for pregnant women, as many were hungry and 'not well-hydrated'
A total of 7,100 evacuees from Afghanistan have arrived at the German base so far.
The base is nearing its capacity of 7,500 after 36 flights carrying evacuees landed in recent days, according to CNN.
Evacuation efforts are speeding up as the Taliban lose patience with US procedures. A spokesman for the group said that there would be 'consequences' if Biden extends his August 31 withdrawal deadline.
According to the White House, 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul between 3am and 3pm on Monday. The US has evacuated 48,000 people from Afghanistan since August 14.
Capt. Brymer says she felt 'honored' and 'humbled' to help usher in a new life amid the crisis.
'And just kind of - the sheer humanity of this. I mean, we're people, they're people. We both want the same things, healthy and strong mamas and babies.'
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