Behind every photo is a story to tell, and although this particular photo looks pretty uneventful, it by far depicts my best experience in MDA.

Standing in the bathroom of a birthing suite covered in all sorts of interesting fluids that come with giving birth, my night shift could not have been a better one. My co-volunteer worker Justine and I were getting some sleep between calls when our ambulance driver woke us to say, ‘we have a call, what do you want it to be?’, to which we answered ‘a birth!?’ with which he replied, ‘well then, let’s go have a baby!’ We arrived at the scene as the second team of responders.

Justine and I being the only females, and the patient wanting only females to examine her for religious reasons, were asked to check if her waters had broken and if she was crowning. All of this was very new to us, and although we were instructed what to look for, we definitely felt out of our comfort zone. We saw no crowning and her waters had not yet broken, so we took her on the stretcher to the ambulance. While on the way to the hospital her waters broke, and we could tell that her contractions were now very close together.

Running through the hospital corridors with the patient on the stretcher, we made it to the elevator and had moved up about two floors when I saw the head of the baby begin to emerge. I yelled ‘head!’, and possibly something else out of shock, and came around the side of the stretcher to pull a beautiful new life into this world. I remember standing there with this beautiful baby boy in my hands, and can’t describe the feeling I had in this moment.

Having had so many calls that hadn’t ended as joyously as this one, my heart felt full. It was my most rewarding call so far in my volunteer period, one that I will treasure forever. Amongst all the craziness that goes on in this country, it’s miracles such as these that bring people together regardless of race or cultural background. Here’s to hoping that this little miracle – amongst the rest of its generation – will help pave the way to a more peaceful Israel. So thankful and proud for the opportunity to have worked for such an amazing organisation, God bless Magen David Adom!