- Royal Artillery gunner who was deployed with the 12th Mechanised Brigade gives birth to baby five weeks premature
© Getty Images
Unexpected task: The soldier, who has not been named, was taken to Camp Bastion's £10million field hospital where Army medics delivered her baby - Fijian soldier had passed her pre-deployment training, including an eight-mile march and five-mile run, without realising she was pregnant
- British Army handbook editor says top brass will need to 'start thinking very, very carefully' about how female soldiers are tested before deployment
The woman had a son in Camp Bastion on Tuesday - just days after the Taliban launched a deadly attack on the UK's main base in Helmand.
The baby was born five weeks premature. Last night both mother and child were said to be doing well.
A paediatric team from the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford will travel to Afghanistan in the next few days to provide care for the soldier and her son on their RAF flight home.
The birth has stunned military chiefs and led to calls for extra medical checks on women who are sent to the warzone.
Almost 200 troops have discovered they were pregnant at war since 2003 - forcing commanders to send them straight back to Britain. But this is the first time a UK soldier has given birth to a baby in Afghanistan.
