An Australian doctor became a mile-high heroine during a flight from New Zealand to Chile when she delivered a passenger's baby girl, a report said on Sunday.

Obstetrician Jenny Cook, a fellow passenger on a Lan Chile flight last month, was called on by air stewards when a Brazilian woman complained of back pain some 35 000 feet over the Pacific.

The woman, known only as Aline, was insistent she was not pregnant but Cook quickly realised she was in labour and about to give birth.

Equipped only with a basic first-aid kit and an emergency oxygen mask, Cook delivered the baby, which was in the dangerous feet-first breach position.

"I didn't know what was going to happen — if the baby was going to breathe, if the mother was going to bleed," Cook told the Sunday Telegraph.

"And if I had to make any cuts to get the baby out, were they going to give me a plastic knife?"

After the baby was born, the staff asked Cook what they needed to do next. Cook, who was upgraded to first class for the rest of the flight, replied: "Take photos!"

AFP

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