Unknowingly Pregnant Soldier Gives Birth In Afghanistan
A British solider has given birth on the frontline in Afghanistan after neither her nor an army medical team realised that she was pregnant. The women’s son was born in Camp Bastion on Tuesday only days after the Taliban had launched an attack on the UK’s main base in Helmand. To friends of the women involved, I say good luck beating that birthing story.
Both mother and child are said to be doing well after the baby was born five weeks premature whilst a “specialist paediatric retrieval team” has been sent from Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital to assist the new mother and her offspring. She will travel home on an RAF flight in the near future.
This is the first circumstance where a UK soldier has given birth in the country on duty, but almost 200 troops have discovered that they’ve been pregnant since 2003 and have had to return home because of it. This latest escapade has lead to military chiefs to call for extra medical checks on women who are sent to warzone because it’s not really the best place for a pregnant woman.
After complaining of severe stomach pains, the medics informed the soldier she was in week 34 of her pregnancy, meaning that the child was conceived before she flew out to the war-torn country and that she would be born five weeks prematurely.
The Fijian solider had to pass an intense training camp in order to be deployed, which included a eight mile march and five mile run whilst she was carrying child. Despite only being sent back to Afghanistan a few days ag,o there is still an outside chance that Prince Harry has something to do with the whole ordeal.
