Meet Chloe, born at 35,000 feet to young Victoria couple en route to Japan

BY CINDY E. HARNETT, TIMES COLONIST MAY 13, 2015

Ada Guan, 23, tends to her daughter, Chloe, born on a flight from Calgary to Japan on MotherÕs Day.

Photograph by: Submitted , Facebook

A young Victoria couple who set out in search of a once-in-a-lifetime experience in Japan got one when Ada Guan, unaware she was pregnant, gave birth on the plane.

Now Guan, 23, and partner Wesley Branch, 24, are wondering how they will provide for their new baby girl, Chloe, once they return to Victoria.

“These kids are just starting out,” said Wesley’s mother, Sandra Branch, 55, of Penticton.

“They live in a dinky little basement suite. A dark little 100-year-old house.”

The couple left for Japan on Sunday from Victoria, with a layover in Calgary. Guan, a petite woman, had gained weight recently and suffered stomach cramps, but had taken a pregnancy test a few weeks ago that turned out negative.

Mid-flight at 35,000 feet, Guan’s stomach upset turned into intense pain. Luckily, three passengers aboard Air Canada Flight AC009 to Tokyo were doctors. Sandra Branch said Guan was put in first class and given Tylenol or Aspirin to deal with the pain.

“It’s a crazy experience,” Wesley Branch said in an interview with CHEK News. “I think we were over Russia, and that’s when she started getting really bad contractions. I was there for her the whole time and I didn’t know what was going on. She didn’t know what was going on.

“We just thought it was a bad stomach ache.”

Guan said she felt something “wanting to come out.” She asked her partner to check.

He looked and there was “this little baby head.”

Wesley Branch said he has never been happier in his life.

Guan told CHEK that family support was very important in dealing with the situation.

“I’m definitely really emotional, I mean really stressed out right now about this.”

The plane was given landing priority at Narita airport and touched down ahead of schedule. A ground-based medical team met the couple and the new mother was taken directly to hospital.

The baby was born at about 37 weeks weighing seven pounds, five ounces. Wesley Branch visited the Canadian embassy on Tuesday to get the infant a Canadian birth certificate and passport.

News media from around the world have flocked to cover the Mother’s Day story.

But behind the headlines, said Sandra Branch, is a couple with no extra money for a baby, scared, in a foreign country with no family, no infant training and no media experience.

“We’re very excited but it’s a scary thing not being around family,” she said.

Wesley Branch is unemployed, while Guan, who recently moved from Calgary to be with him, works part time.

“They were going [to Japan] for a week for a little holiday and an experience for both of them,” Sandra Branch said. “Wes hasn’t been outside of Canada.”

The couple did not buy medical insurance. Now they find themselves paying for diapers on credit cards and phoning home frantic for directions on breastfeeding.

“We would have had them home today had the doctors given the OK,” said Sandra Branch.

Wesley Branch phoned his mother on Monday night.

“He said, ‘Mom, I just want to hear your voice. I wish we were home and I miss you.’ They are doing the best they can.”