In a rare case, a mother of eight in her 40s, 35 weeks pregnant, started feeling unwell while in her Petah Tikva home yesterday (Wednesday). When the pain became severe, accompanied by bleeding, MDA were called. The arriving paramedics performed CPR on her baby for some time to no avail, and were forced to pronounce the baby dead on the spot, according to a Kikar Hashabbat report. The woman herself was evacuated to the Beilinson hospital in stable condition.

Medical staff in the hospital assessed that it was a natural complication in the pregnancy that brought on the unplanned birth, with the baby stillborn, with no pulse. Cases of unplanned home births where the baby is stillborn are considered rare.

A year ago a woman from a town in the Galilee arrived at a hospital with her baby, born in a home birth. The baby was also lifeless, but in that case it was a planned home birth that went tragically awry. The woman only went to the hospital after the midwife had seen that the baby had no pulse.

In another case occurring three months ago, a baby died during a home birth in another town in the Jezreel Valley. MDA paramedics arriving at the scene performed CPR, but the baby was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Rambam hospital in Haifa.