An unmarried British airline stewardess who unexpectedly gave birth to a baby boy in Qatar has returned home because of fears she would be arrested in the Gulf state where it is illegal for single women to have babies. Susan Mackie, 23, a stewardess with Gulf Air, said on her arrival at Heathrow Airport Monday night that she had no idea she was pregnant until she went into labor last week while on a one-night stopover in Doha, capital of Qatar.
LONDON newspaper press report -- An unmarried British airline stewardess who unexpectedly gave birth to a baby boy in Qatar has returned home because of fears she would be arrested in the Gulf state where it is illegal for single women to have babies. Susan Mackie, 23, a stewardess with Gulf Air, said on her arrival at Heathrow Airport Monday night that she had no idea she was pregnant until she went into labor last week while on a one-night stopover in Doha, capital of Qatar. She described the 6-pound baby boy she held in her arms as 'the biggest shock of my life.' 'It was a complete surprise,' she said. 'I had no idea I was pregnant.' The stewardess from Aberdeen, Scotland, who was on her way to Britain from India, said she gave birth to her baby by herself in her Qatar hotel room. 'I was all on my own but it wasn't difficult,' she said. 'It was just natural. I didn't have any books to help me. I just coped.' When she first went into labor, she said she thought she had caught a stomach virus. Medical experts explained it is possible for a woman who travels by air a great deal to have a very irregular menstrual cycle. She would thus be less likely to realize she was pregnant. British press reports said the Foreign Office arranged Mackie's departure from Qatar with officials from the Gulf state. It is illegal under Islamic law for unmarried women to give birth. The reports said Qatar officials were 'furious' about the birth, but let Mackie go after negotiations with British officials in the Gulf state. 'She needed to get back to Britain and she did,' a Foreign Office official said. 'We were a little worried,' Britain's charge d'affaires Ian Lockhart was quoted as saying in various British newspapers. 'Technically, she could have gone to prison. It is a Muslim society here. Luckily, we could not have had better help from the Qataris. It has been a very strange case. We just kept our fingers crossed.'
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Location: Heathrow Airport London
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