Noa and Natan Twitto, of the Givat Zeev neighborhood of Jerusalem, rang in the New Year in the new maternity suite at Hadassah Hospital Mount Scopus. That’s where they welcomed the hospital’s first baby of 2019. Baby boy Twitto was born around 1 a.m. in what was “an empowering experience with the terrific team of midwives.” At home waiting for the arrival of her new brother is big sister aged 2.

A little later across town at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem, Meital and Avi Trozman, from Tzur Hadassah, celebrated the arrival of their fourth child, a baby boy. He was Ein Kerem’s first birth of 2019. The Trozman’s fourth child, he evens out the family count of two daughters and now two sons. “It was an easy natural birth,” Meital reported. “Wishing all a joyous New Year.”