Hashgacha Pratit– Personal Intervention

At PUAH Institute, we pride ourselves with our very special brand of  personal care and discreet intervention and most important, with our meticulous supervision of genetic materials for couples who need particular procedures.

Our Mashgichot - supervisors, experience touching and emotional situations with men and women who suffer fertility challenges and are doing everything in their power to make their dream of having a family come true. They are privy to some of the most trying moments in a couple's marriage and their quest to have a baby.

The East Coast head supervisor shares a most poingnant vignette with us.  Although we at PUAH are quite moved by each and every step towards the process of becoming of family, we are sure that you too will get goosebumps from this story.

Candle Lighting in the Lab

Anita and Jeremey* went through many arduous years of trying to get pregnant.  They went to a renowned specialist in their Long Island community for treatments. Each procedure and each failure was like reopening  a gaping wound. Then, finally, they learned about PUAH and their counseling, their education and their supervision. The couple decided to try a new approach and tarnsferred to a physician and to a lab in Manhattan. They needed genetic testing for a condition they have.

Within one month's time of the beginning of their new treatment, the couple learned that the lab needed to work on their case late on a Friday afternoon during the winter. Their appointment was at 5:00 PM. They arranged to sleep at a midtown Manhattan  boutique hotel very close to the Waldorf Astoria.  Soon after the couple arrived at the lab, it was candle lighting time. What to do?

After voicing her concerns to the lab's director, a Catholic woman, the patient/client was very concerned. Lighting candles on Friday night was not something she had ever missed in her marriage – it was a constant source of her connection to Judaism and of her emunah – belief. The lab director heard the woman's pained voice and told her that she could light her Shabbos candles in the director's office.  Problem solved – candles lit, bracha made.

Two weeks later, the excited lab director called PUAH's mashgichah to give her news. With an excited voice, uncharacterstic of her personality, the woman told PUAH's supervisor that the patient was indeed pregnant. And, although totally scientific in her usual approach, she showed a side of herself that was quite inspiring.  She said she needed to the extra measure of personally informing the mashgicha that she believes that the lighting of the candles,  in her very own office, contributed to the woman's ultimate  dream – her first pregancy after so many years of trying.

*The couple's names were changed to protect their privacy.