Labor of love

Volunteer paramedic delivers 3 babies in 48 hours

Issachar Weiss, 24, says rare confluence of home births was ‘exciting,’ may be a record

By Marcy Oster 7 November 2019, 7:52 am

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Medic Issachar Weiss, 24, delivers three babies in the span of 48 hours (courtesy of Magen David Adom)

JTA — 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.”

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.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.