Eden Ben Simon Lost Her Baby at 36 Weeks and Spent About 2.5 Weeks on a Ventilator With Sepsis, Then Delivered Her Son Niv Meir at the Same Israeli Hospital

“This was a perfect birth,” Eden Edna Ben Simon said after she delivered her son at Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital in Israel, the same hospital where she had lost a baby at 36 weeks and then spent about two and a half weeks sedated on a ventilator. The boy was named Niv Meir at his brit milah, according to a Nov. 4 report from VINnews.

Ben Simon, 35, is a mother of two from Kiryat Malachi. Her return to the maternity ward, roughly a year and a half after the stillbirth, closed a chapter that nearly cost her life.

The fever, the silence, and the stillbirth

In early 2025, Ben Simon went to the maternity emergency department at Assuta Ashdod after several days of high fever, VINnews reported. She had also stopped feeling her baby move. Doctors found that the baby had no heartbeat, and a stillbirth at 36 weeks followed.

In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines stillbirth as the loss of a pregnancy at or after 20 weeks, and sorts it into early (20 to 27 weeks), late (28 to 36 weeks) and term (37 weeks or later). By that scheme, a loss at 36 weeks is a late stillbirth. The agency lists age 35 or older, high blood pressure, carrying multiples and a previous stillbirth among the factors linked to higher rates, and it says people who notice something unusual or concerning in pregnancy should talk with their doctor.

An infection that became sepsis

For Ben Simon, the loss was only the first emergency. After the stillbirth, an infection of the amniotic fluid developed into sepsis and multiple organ failure, according to VINnews. She was moved to intensive care, sedated and placed on a ventilator for about 2.5 weeks, or two and a half weeks. Her treatment included dialysis and a blood exchange.

Dr. Ami Mayo, director of the hospital’s intensive care unit, said, “Her treatment required a multidisciplinary effort, mechanical ventilation, dialysis and complex medical interventions.” Dozens of professionals from intensive care, obstetrics, nephrology, hematology, infectious diseases, rheumatology and internal medicine took part in her care, VINnews reported.

Ben Simon told the outlet that she remembers the stillbirth and saying goodbye to the baby, then nothing until she woke up in intensive care.

Ireland’s national health service, the HSE, describes sepsis in pregnancy as sepsis that develops during pregnancy or up to six weeks after birth, miscarriage or abortion, and calls it rare but potentially life threatening. The HSE lists womb infections, including chorioamnionitis, among the common causes, and notes that pregnancy changes the immune system so that infections can become more serious. Its emergency signs include difficulty breathing, confusion, dizziness or fainting and reduced urination.

The scale of the problem is larger than any single hospital. A maternal health article from OakBend Medical Center in Texas says 23 percent of maternal deaths in the United States are related to sepsis, and that early changes can look like normal pregnancy changes with no obvious source of infection. The World Health Organization lists infections, usually after childbirth, among five major complications that together account for around 75 percent of all maternal deaths worldwide.

Recovery, and the team that stayed with her

Ben Simon went through extended rehabilitation and emotional support after she left intensive care, VINnews reported. Dr. Tomer Shayev, a senior nephrologist at the hospital, coordinated her medical follow-up and the tests she needed before she was cleared to conceive again.

Yarin Harush, a hospital social worker who supports women and couples after stillbirth, accompanied her from the start. “A stillbirth is a loss that continues to accompany a family long after hospitalization,” Harush said.

That kind of follow-up is part of a structured approach at Assuta Ashdod. A 2024 paper in the International Journal of Nursing and Health Care Research, describes the Samson Assuta Ashdod public hospital’s care after stillbirth. In 2022 the hospital had about 6,300 births and a stillbirth rate of 3.3 per 1,000, the authors reported, a figure that includes planned abortions performed in the obstetrics department.

The paper says trained midwives stay with the family from diagnosis through delivery, women have private rooms and a companion of their choice, and families receive memory-making keepsakes such as photos, footprints and a memory box. Social workers lead post-discharge workshops, and from 2020 to 2022, 28 women took part, about 56 percent of those who had a stillbirth in that period.

The pregnancy that followed

When Ben Simon became pregnant again, she was monitored closely and hospitalized for nearly a month before delivery, according to VINnews. She joined a hospital project called Atufah, which the outlet translated as “Wrapped in Support” and which gives women who had traumatic births continuous, personalized support before the next delivery. The nursing paper calls the same extension “Enveloped” and says it also serves women who experienced other traumatic births.

Midwife Chani Rabinovitz was Ben Simon’s main support person during the pregnancy and was present at the delivery, with midwife Avivit Hagag also part of the team, VINnews reported. The hospital also runs grief support groups, individual guidance before another pregnancy and childbirth preparation courses for women who have had a stillbirth.

The boy was born on a Tuesday shortly before the Nov. 4 report. At the brit milah he was named Niv Meir. After she delivered, Ben Simon described the birth as “perfect.”

Other families have told their own stories of what came after a late loss. One example is an Idaho couple who lost their daughter at 39 weeks and then endured four more pregnancy losses before an adoption call came.

What the hospital says the case shows

VINnews’s account does not say how the amniotic fluid infection started. It does show how much of Ben Simon’s care happened outside the delivery room: dialysis and a blood exchange in intensive care, specialist clearance from a nephrologist before she could conceive, a month in the hospital before delivery, and a midwife who stayed with her through the pregnancy.

Harush’s remark that a stillbirth stays with a family long after hospitalization frames the hospital’s view of that work. For Ben Simon, the last stage of it ended on a Tuesday in the same building where it began, with a boy named Niv Meir.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: יעקב – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons