A volunteer paramedic for Magen David Adom in the Tel Aviv area delivered three babies in 48 hours.
At 4:30 a.m. Sunday Issachar Weiss, 24, arrived at a home in the suburb of Givatayim and found the baby crowning. He called on the mother to push and delivered the baby.
At about 5 a.m. Monday, Weiss was called to Bnei Brak to help a woman deliver her son after she failed to make it to the hospital on time. The same day at 5 p.m., he delivered a baby for a woman in the Hatikvah neighborhood of Tel Aviv.
Weiss said in a post on MDA’s Facebook page that he thinks this was a record for home deliveries for the emergency service.
“Birth at home is a very unusual thing. We don’t like to do it, but when it happens and is successful it’s really fun,” he said. “Only for me it was times three in 48 hours. I am still so excited.”
Yissachar Weiss and Adva Minsharov, with her new baby
“He’s an angel on a motorocycle,” said Adva Mansrov, 39, who gave birth early Sunday morning after a quick labor which did not leave her time to reach a hospital.
At 4:30 a.m. Sunday Issachar Weiss, 24, arrived at a home in the suburb of Givatayim and found the baby crowning. He called on the mother to push and delivered the baby.
Weiss, arriving at Mansrov’s home in Givatayaim, found Adva giving birth with her husband beside her and the couple’s two older children sleeping in the next room.
“A few minutes after I arrived at Adva’s home, the baby’s head was already out, and I told her, ‘Now you need to push, and I’ll receive the baby,'” he said.
That same evening, at 5 p.m. Monday, Weiss was called to deliver a third woman, in Tel Aviv’s Hatikva neighborhood (Bnei Brak). There, he helped deliver a baby girl, after her mother did not manage to reach the hospital.
He quickly arrived at the home of Natasnet Valadav, 28, who said that the motorcycle-riding paramedic succeeded in easing her fears and concerns regarding the home birth.
“I gave birth to my two previous children in the hospital,” she said. “The home birth happened by complete surprise and it scared me, but when the MDA staff arrived I calmed down, and I knew I was in good hands.”
Weiss related: “It’s always preferable to give birth in a delivery room at the hospital, and that is the safest environment for both mother and baby. However, we are trained to deliver and aid women who are giving birth, and I am very happy that these three deliveries went successfully, and that both the women and babies are doing well.”
“Every such birth is an emotional event and fills me with satisfaction, giving me the strength to continue volunteering.”
The Israeli Hebrew-language daily Yediot Acharonot published an article on its back page with the headline “HaSandak 3” (Godfather 3) an apparent pun on the film series. In Judaism the sandak is the person who holds a baby boy at his circumcision.