At 6:50 AM on the morning of December 24th, Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center recorded its 20,000th birth for the year, establishing a record known to make the hospital the most active maternity facility in the Western world.
The baby boy, the youngest of five children, was born to Ariella Spero of Beit Shemesh. The newborn was delivered by Yael Shachor who received unwavering praise from the mother for the support and caring she provided during the labor, which, Ariella acknowledged with a smile, was over in only two hours.
Shaare Zedek, which has held the distinction as Israel’s number one hospital for maternal deliveries for several years, is currently involved in an ambitious development and construction project to respond to the ever increasing number of births in the hospital. In the coming weeks the hospital will open the top two floors of The Next Generation Building on its main campus to serve as a comprehensive center of pediatric medicine.
The top two floors, home to the Huberfeld Family Birthing Center will house an additional two maternity departments as well as Israel’s largest and most advanced Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Immediately upon occupancy of the new facilities, the hospital will embark on a significant expansion of its delivery room suites to eventually offer 22 individual rooms for labor and delivery.
Professor Jonathan Halevy congratulated the 20,000th baby, presenting the baby’s mother with a bouquet of flowers and his warm wishes. “This accomplishment can in part be credited to the parents, but of course wouldn’t be possible without the remarkable dedication of our doctors and nurses because more than just reaching a number, this is about ensuring that every case is treated individually and with compassion,” he said. “This number is a true source of pride for Shaare Zedek, for Jerusalem and indeed for the state of Israel and her friends around the world.”
Professor Halevy acknowledged that the constantly increasing popularity of the hospital created the need for space on the maternity wards which has made the ongoing development projects that much more pressing. “The opening of these new departments will add about 45 percent to the amount of space that we have for maternal and neonatal care,” he said. “The new facility has been designed and built to accommodate the highest medical standards in an ultra-modern working environment. We can now ensure that Shaare Zedek’s reputation as an international leader in the care and research of obstetrics and neonatology is sure to be only enhanced in the coming years.”
