Couple who had baby on plane faces scathing online backlash
Ever taken care of a cat? It’s virtually indistinguishable from raising a human baby.
Such a statement has rarely, if ever, been voiced in earnest by a parent — that is, until a fresh-faced, look-on-the-brightside new dad now making international headlines asked TV reporters on Sunday: “Who can’t take care of a baby? If you have cats, you’re going to be able to take care of a baby.”
It’s this kind of comment that’s quickly teaching Wesley Branch and Ada Guan — mom and dad to now world-famous Baby Chloe, born on an Air Canada flight to Japan on Mother’s Day to their apparent surprise — that, for parents, criticism is not hard to come by.
Just days after Guan, 23, gave birth to a baby she insists she did not know she was carrying, the Victoria couple returned to Canada this weekend to a backlash suggesting they are opportunists trying to cash in on the bizarre birth.
Before leaving Tokyo, 24-year-old Branch had set up an online fundraising account to help cover the costs of Chloe’s cruising-altitude arrival. Soon, admonishing comments appeared alongside messages of congratulations.
“You’re definitely not ready to be a father to think caring for cats is the same as a baby,” wrote one commenter on Branch’s GoFundMe fundraising site, among several contributors who both donated money and left a nasty comment. “GET A JOB OR TWO.”
“Use birth control if you are not prepared for the cost of a kid,” wrote another.
“That fact that even though you are unemployed and your girl friend (sic) only worked part-time but you thought you needed a holiday, is as stupid as you saying that looking after a cat is as easy as a kid.”
The backlash began late last week, shortly after the couple attracted worldwide attention for their midflight delivery aboard a Tokyo-bound plane on May 10.
Somewhere above Russia, Guan began experiencing abdominal pain, and soon realized she was go- ing into labour.
“She said, ‘Babe, something fell out of me,’ ” Branch told reporters.
Doctors on the plane helped deliver the full-term baby, and Japanese emergency personnel whisked away seven-pound Chloe and her shellshocked mother for treatment upon landing.
Both are healthy, but the young family is now facing unexpected medical bills.
At the suggestion of a family member, Branch set up a GoFundMe account to help over costs, since Branch does not work and Guan has a part-time job.
“We aren’t rich by any means, and our families aren’t either, but very supportive. This was not expected, the trip to Japan was a gift from a family member of Ada’s. Never in a million years did we expect to have a baby, let alone have it on a plane over Japan,” Branch wrote on the account, to explain why the money was needed. The problem? Their fundraising goal was a whopping $50,000, prompting suggestions Branch and Guan were trying to capitalize on their daughter’s spectacular birth.
“I’ll bet anyone $100.00 right now that they will never pay any of this money to the hospital in Japan. Not a penny. . . . I’ll bet you!” wrote one commenter on the GoFundme account.
Hurt by the negative reactions, Branch reduced the goal amount to $5,000, telling CBC on Sunday that he regretted setting up the account and had misunderstood how crowd funding works (as of press time Monday, the site had raised nearly $2,000).
The young couple has also faced suspicion over whether their story adds up, including claims that Guan was on birth control, that she took a pregnancy test last month that came back negative, and that she hadn’t noticed significant changes in her body.
Branch says “screw ’em” to that, saying there has been more positive than negative feedback.
“It made me very mad that people would think the things that they think, saying that we knew and that this is all lies and this is a con, like are you people crazy, are you nuts? We had no idea,” Branch said during an interview with HLN News, an American cable channel.
The recent developments haven’t made much sense, but as Branch has repeatedly said, he and Guan have never been happier.
He has, however, apparently taken some criticism from online haters to heart.
He has updated his Facebook profile page, filling in his job status as “Fulltime Dad.”