I have been looking into a story that I first heard on Countdown last night. It seems that the birth of Palin’s son this year was met with a little drama.
Palin was speaking at the Republican Governors Association in April. A couple of hours before her speech she started having labor pains, I have also read mixed reports. Some say her water broke and others say she was just “leaking amniotic fluid”. Palin says she called her doctor, who told her to go ahead with the speech then fly back to Alaska.
A typical flight from Dallas to Anchorage is between 5-6 hours. Palin also wasn’t full term yet. I haven’t been able to find out how early she was, but she knew she was having a baby with Downs Syndrome through testing.
So you have a person who is showing signs of labor and not full term yet. She goes into labor and they tell her to go about her business, which includes a lengthy flight. It really seems like Palin put herself and her baby at risk.
Most airlines have strict rules regarding flying while pregnant. I did find one article stating she flew on Alaska Airlines, which doesn’t list any restrictions. The part that I find really odd is that either her fluid broke or she was leaking. Once that happens there is a risk of infection to the baby. That risk increases greatly over time, so they want to get the mother on antibiotics right away. Shouldn’t Palin have at least gone to a hospital in Dallas to get checked out?
Even Bill Frist had a video camera feed when he made a diagnosis from afar. Palin’s doctor only did it over the phone. Maybe the media should look a little more into this story and find out exactly what happened.