UK operator AirMed has launched a new perinatal service, designed to safely transport pregnant women and pre-term babies, and successfully completed the inaugural combined obstetric and neonatal transfer.

The perinatal service comprises specialties that will provide support not only for the newborn child, but will also enable clients to have access to highly specialised skills required for the aeromedical transfer of mothers-to-be, for example obstetrics and fetal medicine. This is something that AirMed says has only been available to clients in a fairly limited capacity before and without the direct access to the consultant teams required for this type of complex transfer.

A British tourist travelling in Kazakhstan has become the first mother-to-be helped by the emergency air ambulance repatriation service after going into labour prematurely at 29 weeks.

Once notified of the emergency, Mapfre Assistance and AirMed worked together quickly to ensure the customer was given the help she needed as soon as possible. After close consultation with the treating physician, a combined neonatal and obstetric senior specialist-led team was dispatched to Almaty on board one of AirMed's Learjet 35A aircraft.

After the patient was assessed on arrival in Almaty, it was agreed that the best course of action was to deliver the baby on-site prior to the air ambulance flight home due to the mother developing acute sepsis. With close co-operation from the treating facility, baby Max was delivered, then successfully resuscitated and intubated prior to the flight. Both mother and son continue to do well following their return home.

The specially modified Learjet 35A was equipped with double stretchers, including a BabyPod, which enable carriage of mother and baby post-delivery if required.

"We are all extremely pleased with the successful outcome of this trip," says Dr Charlotte Bennett, AirMed's neonatal medical director. "However it highlighted more than ever that in this world of ever-changing demographics and travel, there is an absolute requirement for the provision of the most appropriate and specialised medical expertise for all aspects of patient needs,"

The perinatal service continues AirMed's close collaboration with the Oxford Radcliffe Hospital.