Non-stop train makes urgent halt for pregnant woman
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-12-25 09:23

A doctor from a Xuchang hospital in central China's Henan Province said the baby born in a cold winter predawn on a railway station platform under poor hygienic circumstances is safe.

The mother, surnamed Bao, who is also safe, gave birth to the baby just two minutes after she was transferred to an ambulance from a Z-category non-stop train, which made an emergency call at Xuchang railway station. On Sunday night, the train carried passengers, including Bao and her husband, from Beijing to Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei Province, to the south of Henan. Bao had planned to return to the couple's hometown to have the baby.

About an hour after they left Beijing, she began having contractions, which became acute in the early hours of the next day. Her husband, surnamed Li, decided to turn to the crew on the train for help. The conductor showed up and summoned several experienced women crew members to deal with this unexpected problem. He also tried to find out any doctor on the train through the train broadcast system. Within minutes, a woman medical student came around to help.

The student made a judgment that the pregnant woman would give birth to her baby within one or two hours. In such a short period of time, the train could not get to the destination. The student said she was not capable of dealing with such an emergency problem.

The conductor requested for an emergency stop at nearby railway stations. The Train Command Center have told him to stop at Xuchang, about 100 km away.

At 3:14, the train stopped when doctors from Xuchang First Aid Center, with help from crew members, transferred the pregnant woman to an ambulance on the station platform. About two minutes later, the childbirth began.
After the delivery, the mother and her baby were conveyed to a local hospital. The father was excited and smiling. When asked what would be the baby's name, he said he didn't know.

Z-series trains, introduced by the Chinese Ministry of Railways in April, feature non-stop and high speeds. Z stands for "zhite" in Chinese, meaning express trains without a single stop en route.