"Very quickly I realized that this was an active birth and that it was very likely that the baby would come out before the ambulance arrived," said paramedic Yuval Eliyahu. "I directed the husband to bring clean towels in order to wrap the baby as soon as it came out, and in fact I instructed him on how to deliver the baby in their bathroom. After a couple of minutes the baby was born and immediately began to cry."
Amid all the various calls about coronavirus and accidents in recent days, the call about the birth was "really exciting and heartening," said Eliyahu.
"Thanks to [the father] and the brave woman giving birth, everything was OK and ended well," said Eliyahu. MDA paramedics arrived at the scene two minutes after the birth and found the woman and baby to be in good condition. "That same evening, I continued my shift with a great sense of satisfaction and a smile that I couldn't get to leave my face for hours."
There has been a rise in the number of home births since the coronavirus outbreak began. 193 woman have given birth with guidance over the phone from MDA, MDA teams in their homes or in an ambulance on the way to the hospital since March 1. In the same period last year, 157 woman gave birth before arriving to the hospital, a 27% rise compared to last year.
MDA stresses that even during the coronavirus outbreak, the maternity ward of a hospital is still the safest place to give birth. In any case, if the birth is progressing quickly, MDA should be contacted by dialing 101.