“It’s hard to explain this journey in only a few words,” says 36-year-old Shimrit Cohen from Ramat Gan, after becoming the mother of two babies in February, Amit and Ofek, five days apart.
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“After a long and complicated ordeal to get pregnant, which included a stillbirth, I was told I won’t be able to handle another pregnancy, and that it was dangerous for me,” she explains.
“We reached out for a surrogate and meanwhile I also had an unplanned pregnancy. It never happened to me before, I conceived only a week after the surrogate did. We were completely shocked,” she said.
You must’ve been really happy when you found out about the pregnancy.
“Yes, but there were also fears and worries. The pregnancy put me at high risk, and the surrogate was in Georgia. I was hospitalized in Israel, and had to go through surgery to continue the pregnancy,” she says.
“We had IVF (in vitro fertilization) treatments, but I never thought I’d get pregnant spontaneously. We were shocked for two weeks. I couldn’t even fly there; my husband was there for a month and a half and I stayed here with two children. It was insane.”
Did you ever consider aborting the pregnancy due to the high risk?
“We had many fears but decided to keep it. We decided it was a gift. We had a complication in the 18th week, that almost made me abort the pregnancy. Doctors told me I had to go through an urgent surgery and we thought this might be where we won’t be able to continue,” Cohen recounts.
“We still had the trauma of a stillbirth fresh in our minds, but we decided to go on. It was a long and complex way to go, but it was all worth it in the end.”
So the two babies have a connection similar to that of siblings, right?
"Absolutely, they met when they were one and a half months old because we went through a complex bureaucratic process until we could bring our son to Israel. I also met him for the first time when he was one and a half months old,” she says.
“They immediately started babbling together; it's amazing to see. Especially after going through a maternity leave without a baby, and now I'm going through it with two of them."
I know many people ask you about giving birth to twins, and you have to tell them the story every time?
"Yes, that's why I told myself that I must share this story. I wanted to talk about it because many women ask me about my journey, and I had no one to ask but myself.”
“I didn't know anyone near me going through fertility treatments or trying surrogacy. After my stillbirth, I had someone to talk to, and I know many women want to talk, ask questions and share their experience with someone who’s been through it,” she adds.