Last week Thursday, Rachel Feld, who has been a volunteer EMT with United Hatzalah for just over a year, received an emergency notification from United Hatzalah’s Dispatch and Command Center that she was in close proximity to a medical emergency. Rachel, who has three young children at home, and who was 40 weeks pregnant at the time, knew that she shouldn’t be responding to most medical emergencies for the time being, but when she saw that it was a woman in active labor, she had to go and assist.
Rachel quickly got on her vest, headed to her car, and drove to the address where the woman in active labor was in need of assistance. “I was one of the first responders at the scene, and the woman in labor was so relieved to see me. ‘I am so glad that another mother is here to help me’ the woman told me. It was a great feeling and I knew I had made the correct decision in responding,” Rachel said.
Rachel, together with another EMT from the organization’s women’s unit named Ruth assisted the woman through a very smooth labor. “I’m thankful to say that the birth was pretty smooth, it was the woman’s sixth child and everything went smoothly and the woman gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Both the mother and daughter are healthy and both parents were elated. The best moment for me was simply to see how relieved that woman was that ‘another mother’ was present with her, helping her through the process. She asked me to go with her in the ambulance just to have me there to comfort her. It was really touching for me.” Rachel said.
Making reference to her own situation, Rachel added, “In the back of my mind I was hoping that responding to this labor, would kick-start my own and that I could deliver my baby as well and perhaps even be roommates with the woman in the hospital, but to no avail. I’m still waiting for my miracle to take place.”
Rachel Feld is a member of the Adele and Joel Sandberg Women’s Unit of United Hatzalah and lives with her family in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem.
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