After breaking a record in the delivery room by a woman giving birth to her 20th child, there was another exciting event in the maternity ward. A mother of eight from Jerusalem, age 38, gave birth to triplets at Hadassah Ein Kerem, just hours after her first grandchild was born there too.

The woman, a resident of the Old City of Jerusalem, was informed during pregnancy that she was naturally carrying three fetuses – understandably a surprise for the entire family.

“It was a pregnancy during which of course I was monitored at Hadassah because it is defined as a pregnancy at risk,” she recalls, from ward Gimmel where she is recuperating. “All my previous children were born here, so I am connected to the team, and during the months I had many tests according to recommendation of the team, was under supervision and rested a lot. It was not a simple pregnancy and there were also long weeks in which I was hospitalized in the women’s department in Ein Kerem.”

Her first grandchild was born yesterday, a son to her 22-year-old son, a book-keeping student who also assists his dad in his carpentry shop. The woman says she never imagined she would give birth on the same date. “My daughter-in-law gave birth in her 38th week, a proper time. I was in my 33rd week and too early to give birth. I was happy the little ones would remain inside me for a bit”, she explained with a smile. She and her daughter-in-law are recuperating from birth together, both smiling.

“A few hours after my daughter-in-law gave birth to their first, I too began feeling contractions, which increased in intensity, and I was on my way to Hadassah.”

The C-section was performed by Prof. David Mankuta, director of the maternity and high-risk pregnancy departments at Hadassah Ein Kerem, who also accompanied her during pregnancy, defining it as being high-risk:

Dr. Mankuta said, “This is a spontaneous pregnancy of triplets during which the mother was hospitalized for a few weeks at Hadassah Ein Kerem because of a complication pregnancy that required us to keep her in hospital and under close supervision in the ward.

The follow-up and treatment required special supervision by the team of obstetricians, ultrasound, gynecologists, neonatologists, and anesthesiologists. He surgery was complicated, but we at Hadassah are well experienced in such procedures, even the most complicated among them. Three babies were born, all with a good weight, preemies in their 34th week and they remain under observation in the general preemie ICU.

She was happy to learn her first grandchild was born in the same hospital, so on the same day she became a grandmother, mom to triplets and mom to eleven children. The new grandmother’s condition is good and she is resting from the ordeal. Mazel tov to the entire family”.

The woman said, “at home, there are three sets of things; three cribs, three blankets, a lot of bottles, and of course all the siblings, one of them a year-and-a-half-old, are already waiting for me. I gave birth to all of them in Hadassah. I feel quite at home here. I am a steady client.

I don’t promise we will raise them [the triplets and the new grandchild] together. But my children live nearby so the little ones will grow up close to one-another. Now the real work will begin, when we get home. For now, the team here is taking care of them in the preemie ward. I am constantly updated as to the condition of each of them. Each has a name already. We selected the names prior to birth and we knew each ones gender. At the beginning we referred to them as A,B, and C, but then we began calling them their names, Yousef, Moussa and Issa.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Hadassah Ein Kerem spokesman unit)