Taking closeness to a new level: Sisters have pregnancies, checkups – and deliveries – together

Sisters Ruth Ben-Lulu and Liraz Biton had the same midwife running between them, helping each deliver a healthy baby girl.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Two sisters gave birth last week in adjoining rooms in Soroka Hospital less than two hours apart, taking family closeness to a new level, Ynet reported Sunday.

Little sister Liraz (27) had her second daughter first, followed by Ruth (32), who had her fourth daughter, with both mothers and babies healthy and happy.

“We went through the entire pregnancy together,” said Ruth. “Checkups, follow-ups, we even have the same gynecologist,” who sent them immediately to the Beersheba medical center after they had come for an examination. “So we picked up our mom and drove over. From the emergency room we then went to the delivery room – together.”

The two kept tabs on each other with constant WhatsApp messages, video calls, and by way of their shared midwife, Shlomit Harlev.

Harlev told Ynet that her two patients even progressed at the same pace during their labors. “They received [painkilling] epidurals one after the other, I broke their water, one after the other,” she said with a smile while standing between the two women, who were holding their newborns in their arms.

“Each one got what they wanted, and at the end they wanted to go one after the other.”

“At some point I felt that Ruth was taking charge as the older sister and allowing her sister to go first,” she said, and Ruth laughed, waving her hand airily and saying, “I let her.”

It wasn’t quite like that, of course, as Ruth’s labor had stopped progressing. But as soon as Liraz had her baby in an easy birth, Harlev said she entered Ruth’s room even before doing the paperwork and told the sister that it was her turn.

“I checked her, and it was like she had been released,” the midwife said. “You gave her the chance to give birth,” she said, turning to Ruth, “protecting her, and then gave birth basically by yourself, helping me to take the baby out.”

“It was a unique experience,” Harlev said. “I truly felt the pair’s bond, and how close and supportive they were to each other. It’s not every day I have the privilege to help two such sisters give birth.”

BirthSoroka Medical Center