The staff at Maayanei HaYeshua Hospital in Bnei Brak dealt with a rare and challenging but gratifying situation last Shabbos when ten babies were born within five minutes.

“We were working as usual during our Shabbos shift,” Shoshana Cohen, a midwife at the hospital, said. “When we see that we’re overloaded in the department, we call a midwife on standby to come in but this time there was no sign that something unusual was about to occur.”

Dr. Lior Kashani continued the story, saying that she and another doctor were preparing for a C-section for a woman expecting twins: “Suddenly the emergency room intern stormed in and shouted that a woman expecting triplets had arrived and she needed an emergency C-section. Facing two high-risk births, we called the midwife on standby to come to assist us with the high-risk births and in the delivery room, which was busy as well.”

“Multiple births require a skilled premature babies’ team,” Cohen explained, “because these are babies that are usually born early and at least two midwives are needed in order to assist during the birth and tend to the babies after they’re born. Because of this, we had to call in pediatricians from the NICU and obstetricians on standby.”

Meanwhile, other expectant mothers arrived at the delivery room and they had to be attended to as well.

After all the frantic work and excitement was over, it became clear that ten babies had been born within five minutes. “The COVID period has been challenging but there was a sense of ‘blessed routine’ in our delivery room,” said Dr. Kashani. “We were all occupied with bringing new life into the world.”

Even after years in the field, it was a very moving event for the staff. “To see such bracha in such a brief period of time was very moving, ” said Prof. Ariel Menny, director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Hospital. “Baruch Hashem, all of them were healthy, mothers and babies.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)