On Sunday 13th September 2020 my son, Benji Katz, was delivered into this world by way of a planned C-section in the Babylis Hospital (Ichilov), Tel Aviv. Considering it had been a planned C-section, with the date and time known for a while, the day was dragged out waiting around to be called.
My wife and I had arrived at 09:00 and so, as we approached 17:00 (5 p.m.) we were finally summonsed to the operating theater. The nurses prepared my wife and led her off on a hospital trolley and I was left behind to gown up and ready myself to be called in.
Even though it was my fifth child and the third time I was watching a C-section, there were still plenty of butterflies in my stomach to keep my adrenalin levels topped up. Knowing it was the last time I would witness my wife giving birth, I wanted to capture as much as I could. So, armed with a GoPro and an iPhone XR, I was ready and set. Capturing as much of the event, now depended on the operating staff.
After around 50 minutes of being dressed up for surgery, standing around outside the sliding doors to the operating theater and jumping to attention each time they slid open, I was finally called to join my wife.
Considering this birth was taking place in the midst of an international pandemic, the mood in the operating theater was fairly jovial. The nurses were super friendly and my first question was when could I start to film. Pretty much as soon as my son was extracted, the nurses lowered the separation curtain a little and I was allowed to film freely.
Benji weighed in at 3.595 kg at 19:15, Sunday 13th September 2020. In a year that had been filled with many hard obstacles, a tiny miracle had now returned some light back to our lives.