TA single mothers-to-be get women-only childbirth course

Demand is high and many of the places are already filled.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
cute baby 311 (photo credit: courtesy)
cute baby 311
(photo credit: courtesy)
With the growing number of single mothers, including lesbians, in Tel Aviv, the city’s Sourasky Medical Center has opened what is reportedly the first childbirth preparation course geared to women having babies without support from a male partner.
While some Orthodoxoriented hospitals have childbirth preparation courses with most of the sessions for women, due to modesty concerns, husbands participate in at least one of the meetings.
The Sourasky course, which the hospital said would be run in an “intimate atmosphere and supportive for women who have their babies alone,” will begin on September 26.
Demand is high, and most of the places are already filled.
The NIS 450 course consists of five meetings of two-and-a-half hours each from the 30th week of pregnancy.
Orit Artal-Delogin, director of the Mamy-Lis Club at Sourasky’s Lis Maternity Hospital, said that the course is being opened because of the relatively high number of women in Tel Aviv who are unmarried and having babies. Such women are often uncomfortable taking a childbirth preparation course with heterosexual couples, she said.
“Due to demand, we agreed to hold the course and believe its expected success will turn it into an inseparable part of the services the hospital provides the population in this area,” she said.
Women may register via (03) 697-3113 or the Web site at www.mamylis.org.il.