Baby Leia Oriel Yarkoni arrived on Monday night, January 29th at 10.30pm. After reading her horoscope chart (rising Libra, sun Aquarius, moon in Cancer) I can say with all certainty she is the most delicious and calm baby. A real joy. Ok, enough of the gushing love chat, I am just checking in to let you kinow what it was like to give birth vaginally for the second time in a hospital without an epidural (no ladies I don’t think I am a martyr).

I started to get contractions on Sunday night at around 8pm. They came on really slowly and subtly but all day on Sunday I was feeling weird. Really uncomfortable, really heavy, with swollen toes and this profound feeling I was walking around with a football between my legs.


When the contractions started I wasn’t sure if they really were contractions, just a dull period-like ache, but when it didn’t go away all night, I realized something was happening. That night, I made the finishing touches to my hosptial bag…

Here’s the list
- Some comfy light sweatpants - I like those black and grey sweatpants in the underwear section at The Gap
- Big t-shirts
- Two maternity bras - I have a Bravado and Anita bra. To be honest, I am not particularly happy with either. I made the mistake of buying both of them online — you have to try bras on. It’s so individual.
- Lemon candies for labor - Should have also brought a huge bottle of water. Also, it might be nice to bring some CDs if labor had lasted longer but was in too much pain to notice.
- Camera and video - charged
- Big underwear to hold the pads
- Big pads - loads of bleeding
- Toothbrush and toothpaste - but didn’t bother with showering there. Hairbrush. Face cream.
- First thing I looked for at the hospital was the quintessential peri bottle. That first pee pee was 6,000 times better thanks to that little watering instrument.
- Clothes for baby to leave hospital including blanket.
- Baby seat - husband brought that to the hosptial the day we left.
- Present for sibling - definitely helped. Kept her distracted.
- Snack - almonds and raisins. You can nearly die from hospital food. -
- Could have done with a good meal after delivery. In the end I ate a large cheese sandwich from Au Bon Pain.
- Husband brought chicken soup and local tasty Chinese meal of chicken and cashews with brown rice. Could not touch hospital food.

On the Monday afternoon, the day I gave birth, I had an appointment with the midwife. She took a look and said I was 1cm dilated, and that my cervix was nice and soft. That sounded promising but she said it might take up to a week for the baby to arrive. “A week!” I replied like a parrot. That didn’t make sense. All the same, I had arranged for my mother-in-law to come up and take care of my daughter Nina if and when we ran off to the hospital.

At around 5pm on Monday I picked up my daughter and met up with my mother-in-law. We went home and I started to cook a chicken dinner. While cooking, the contractions started to get worse. Every 5 - 10 minutes. I kept having to get up (I was working on a press release for my husband, Dov, at the same time) and do some breathing exercises. The pain was getting worse but I still didn’t feel it was anything like time to go to the hospital. Besides Dov was out having dinner with a colleague. I called the midwife and told her things had picked up. I asked her when I should come in. She replied, “leave it as long as possible…” I wasn’t sure how to respond to this advice but it seems nature has a way of guiding you during these profound moments.

Around 7pm I decided it might be a good idea to get in the bath. First I had a bath with my daughter. Contractions and all!! We played for a bit as I lay there on my side. The water felt REALLY good. I cannot recommend a bath more during those early contraction hours. It just seems to heal. Nina got out the bath and I got out to get her into her pyjamas but the contraction pains immediately felt worse so I decided to run another bath.

Then at around 8pm something inside me realized this baby was going to arrive tonight. I got out of the bath feel quite delirious and called Dov. “I think you need to come home now… ” was all I said. He was home within half an hour. He found me lying on the bed panting. He helped me get dressed, called a taxi and we left for the hospital. That was one very weird cab ride, me not wanting to freak out the cab driver, (I still wasn’t sure if my water had broken), I thought it had while I was in the bath and I had also seen the bloody show on my towel (kind of a mucousy and bloody mess) but still, I didn’t know what was going to happen.

By the time I got to the hospital, the midwife was next door delivering another baby. A doctor shuffled in and asked if I wanted an epidural. I said “No,” and he walked away. About 10 minutes later she found me puffing and panting with my head in the bed, half naked, and when she had a look, she announced I was 4-5cm dilated. “Not long now,” she said smiling, “and I don’t recommend you get in the bath now.” I however, was not smiling. The pain was becomming unbearable but interestingly, as painful and uncomfortable as I felt, the moments in between felt incredibly sedated, protected, just resting, waiting….

The next half hour passed quickly and very painfully. How to describe it?? An amazing rush of focused pain around the stomach and pelvis. At this point I was lying on my side on the bed holding onto the rails. I didn’t really want to be lying on the bed but I was too afraid to move. Actually the best position for me was in an L shape with my head in the bed and my bottom sticking out. It enabled me to arch my back and move the pressure of the baby around. That’s an interesting thing about the pain. You can actually move your body around and shift it about.

Then as I lay on the bed, I felt this profound change inside me as the baby engaged deep in my birth canal. I literally felt her move down and suddenly realized I was able to push. The first push was not really much of a push. I was afraid of the pain and the pressure which was now deep on my bottom. But I realized if I don’t push, this baby was never going to come out. So the next time a contraction came, I gave a bigger push (and yes, it does feel like you are passing a bowel movement and no, I didn’t pass a bowel movement). This time I knew the baby was crowning. There was a stinging sensation as the midwife pulled down on my vagina to let the baby through (don’t be horrified ladies, you need all the help you can get).

But interestingly, I had only pushed twice and I realized I was making massive progress. Then the next contraction came and I started to push and this time I let out a massive howl too. It felt great to howl but honestly, I was just focusing on getting my baby out…. and then, there is this wet feeling and something sliding through and the next thing you know… there she was. All legs and arms and this remarkable peace came over me. The delirium from fast breathing immediately disappeared and I was suddenly able to look at the people who had taken care of me and say, “thank you…”

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February 8th, 2007 | Permalink