An MDA EMT delivers his own baby in the middle of his shift
When Abraham Ivri was on duty as an MDA Emergency Medical Technician in the Gilboa region, he did not imagine that his shift would end with the birth of his sixth daughter.
A successful first birth
EMT Abraham Ivri started working at MDA about a month ago. His wife Reut had just entered her ninth month of pregnancy, feared that on the day of their child’s birth, her husband would be on duty on Saturday night. She went into labour, her fears came true as Abraham was at work.
Abraham immediately called MDA to dispatch the ambulance crew closest to their home and senior EMT MDA volunteers, Mati Karmi and Orit Ohana, an MDA volunteer paramedic and a family friend were called. The team arrived at Reut’s home and after an initial assessment, prepared Reut for a speedy trip to a hospital. During this, Abraham was working feverishly to find a replacement for his shift so he would be he in time for the birth.
After a few minutes, Abraham left the shift thanks to a replacement – and hurried to the hospital.
He was updated by Orit, who in the meantime continued to provide medical treatment to Reut. Moments before arriving at the hospital, the birth began to reach its crucial stages and the ambulance was forced to stop at the side of the road. Moments later, the birth process began just when Abraham arrived and jumping in to the ambulance in perfect time to assist his wife.
Father for the sixth time Abraham Ivri was overwhelmed saying: “I had been on maternity alert for two weeks now and trying to calculate the shifts and I am always attached to my phone.
This week it happened, and I immediately spoke to MDA and Orit to help my wife. I was able to quickly find a replacement at work and drove to the hospital, intending to arrive even before the birth.
Happily, I arrived just as the baby girl was entering the world and I actually performed my first birth in the organization – with the woman giving birth being my wife.
It was stressful and exciting together – both because it was the first birth, medically I wanted to make sure everything was going as well as possible, and also because it was my baby. Mixed emotions. I experienced the event in an extraordinary way – both as an EMT and as a father. Orit managed to take care of me and my wife and managed the event very professionally. From the day my wife found out she was pregnant, our sons laughed and raised the possibility that I would just be on duty.
When they entered the maternity ward at the hospital, and I was in an MDA uniform – the nurses did not understand why I entered the room. It took them a while to understand that I was also the father and the EMT who delivered the baby.”
Orit Ohana said: “Recently, Abraham talked a lot about the fact that he is afraid of missing the birth, because of the shifts. That evening he called me and told me it was happening and asked me to hurry to Reut. We were in touch with him throughout the trip, we wanted him to be a partner in the process and to our delight, he arrived at just the right time and just jumped into the ambulance when the active birthing process began. He functioned at that moment as an EMT and as a husband – who on the one hand takes care of the medical aspects and on the other hand encourages and embraces. He was very excited and we were all happy that Abraham was the one who assisted his wife and that he managed to arrive on time. “
