Birth & Midwifery in Israel
RESOURCES FOR PARENTS AND PRACTITIONERS

Connect with many more midwives and birth enthusiasts from around the world by joining IAM, the International Alliance of Midwives!

Some of the following sites may not be in English; an online translator may be useful.

Midwifery Today Country Contact

Ilana Shemesh and Leslie Wolff

Ilana Shemesh, an American-born midwife who immigrated to Israel in l973, is a pioneer and leader in the struggle for childbirth reform in Israel. She received her nursing and midwifery degree in Israel, and has been stroking moms and catching babies since l982. While working for 18 years in hospital labor rooms, she began a private midwifery service providing homebirths and was instrumental in opening the first homestyle hospital birthing rooms in Israel. Ilana specializes in minimal-intervention, women-led natural childbirth and gentle birth for the baby. Her goal is to help empower women through birth by supporting self-expression and choice in childbirth. Since 2001 Ilana is only attending homebirths and births in her cabins in her backyard. She is married to a very supportive man and is the mother of three girls, the last of whom she birthed at home. Her hobbies include being a grandma, arts and crafts and gardening.

 
Leslie Wolff
Leslie Wolff is a midwife and lactation consulant. For years she has devoted her energies toward bringing about natural childbirth within hospital walls. Today she is co-ordinator of lactation and childbirth education services in Bnai Zion Hospital in Haifa, doing her best to promote breastfeeding among the new mothers and hospital staff according to the guidelines of WHO's Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative.

To contact Leslie Wolff, Ilana Shemesh or any other Midwifery Today Country Contact, please log in to the International Alliance of Midwives (IAM), or write to the IAM administrator.

Birth/Midwifery

• www.birthathome.co.il—(in English and Hebrew) Web site of Ilana Shemesh, an Israeli homebirth midwife and the author of the only Hebrew book on homebirth
• http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/birthisrael/—(in English) This is a group for birth professionals in Israel. Doctors, midwives, childbirth educators, doulas etc.are invited to join us to discuss pregnancy and birth practices in Israel.
• www.birthisrael.com—(in English) We educate for minimal intervention, family centered, non-threatening birth. Information is presented which allows pregnant women and their partners the opportunity to make their own choices about their own births.
• The Israeli Midwife Organization (in Hebrew)
• www.leyda.co.il (in Hebrew)—for anyone interested in birth related subjects, forums, etc.
• www.leida.co.il (in Hebrew)—for anyone interested in birth related subjects, forums, etc.
• www.leida.co.il/page.asp?id=85001 (in English)
• www. doula.co.il (in Hebrew)—especially for doulas

Parenting/Breastfeeding

• La Leche League (in Hebrew)
• La Leche League (in English)