The maternity of Bethlehem

Over the last few years, Holy Family Hospital has become the major provider of maternal and newborn healthcare in the District of Bethlehem. From its share of 37% of the total deliveries of the district in 2002, the activity has passed to 67% in 2007.

Holy Family Hospital has done so while preserving a level of care that is comparable to anywhere in the civilized world and while keeping the door always open to the needy and destitute.

This could not have been possible without the continuous support of the Sovereign Order of Malta and of our generous benefactors.

Bethlehem district deliveries 2007 :

The number of yearly deliveries since 1990 was as follows:

Total deliveries since 1990: 42,466

Sometimes getting out of our routine work can be useful in order to think closely about the sense of our presence and our humanitarian action here and to have a critical look at it, especially in this particular situation in which we are plunged in Palestine. How is our presence perceived by the local people? How to make the influence of our hospital itself felt in the local society? Of course the statistics of deliveries at Holy Family Hospital will give partially a positive answer considering the increase in the number of patients having recourse to our care in the last years .Actually we are delivering about 70% of all pregnant women in the district of Bethlehem and nearly 100% of all high risk pregnancies in the district of Bethlehem. Is it sufficient to justify our enthusiasm to stay further in this country?

Of course beyond these encouraging statistics there are two major reasons justifying the continued presence of the Sovereign Order of Malta in the Holy Land. One of these reasons  is to continue the centuries old tradition of the Order of St John of Jerusalem in taking care of our “Lords the Poor”. Since 1048 under the leadership of blessed Brother Gerhard, the monastic community of the Hospitaler of St John of Jerusalem, treated pilgrims and sick people and took in destitute people. In 1113, the Pope Paschalis II consecrated the congregation of the hospital of St John of Jerusalem as a religious order. In 1310 the Order took possession of the Island of Rhodes thus acquiring territorial Sovereignty.  In 1834 as a Sovereign Order enjoying the rights of extraterritoriality, the Order settled in Rome and since then the humanitarian mission of the Order has continue to increase worldwide.

On the other hand we are staying especially here in the Holy Land in order to bear witness of our faith to God in respect of the faith and the religious culture of local people; it is in a certain way an ecumenical project dedicated to God and to the Palestinian people. We hope that everybody working or being treated in this hospital could experience the same enthusiastic feeling of dedication to an outstanding institution combining high standards of medical care with peace, love and humanity.

Dr Jacques Keutgen

Director General