Tag: birth

  • On the sixth day…

    And on the sixth day, man… And on the seventh, they rested (sort of). Our baby girl was born in our home this past Friday, just in time for Shabbat. The labor took less than a third the time it took with Koala, and she beats her brother by 150 grams at 2.85 kilos – and…

  • We’ve come a long way, baby.

    Hey, littler one. My midwife says you’re ready to roll. Or squeeze yourself out of my body, whatever. She also says I’m ready. So I guess that means this is it, huh? Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to meeting you. So is your big brother, though I apologize in advance if things are…

  • Hebrew vocabulary for new parents (הורים).

    I’ll soon be coming on five years of Israelihood, and of course every day I’ve added new academic and obscure Hebrew to my arsenal. But expanding vocabulary is more than just learning new words; it’s about knowing what even the most familiar words mean in new contexts. For instance: being a mom. Here is part of…

  • The Hadassah birthing experience.

    In the end, we went to Hadassah Ein Kerem for the birth. It was an issue of confidence and although I think I still would have preferred a homebirth, I can say with 20/20 retrospective vision that I’m comfortable with our experience – it was positive, it was successful and… it was lucky, as these…

  • This is how we do it.

    The following are a few excerpts from an email I wrote to my birthing class instructor explaining how the birth went in my view.  By the way, I highly recommend the class I took (or taking a class at all – it’s not all superficial breathing, but more about awareness). I also recommend having a…

  • Birthing in Hebrew.

    I always thought when it came to my childbirth experience here in Israel, I’d end up automatically speaking, pleading and moaning in my native tongue. Despite Israeli hospital staff. I figured they probably get that all the time, and who doesn’t speak English in the medical field? Well… it didn’t happen that way. I birthed…

  • Birth day.

    39 weeks. 36 hours of labor. Unmedicated natural childbirth.  Careful midwives, wise doula, supportive husband.  Beautiful, red, hairy, 2.7 kilo baby boy. Most amazing thing I’ve ever done.

  • End of days.

    Since I found out I was pregnant, I’ve been watching and waiting as pregnant peers around me finish up their terms, give birth and move on to parenthood. It’s been a sort of countdown of names, not numbers – first so-and-so, then so-and-so, next so-and-so. Happens to be there have been quite a few, especially…

  • An unlikely metaphor.

    Sometimes it’s hard to imagine something you’ve never done before. I imagine this impending adventure… to be similar to a bad trip I had many years ago.  A friend and I were spending a few days in Amsterdam. These were college years, so you can imagine what we were doing. The evening before we were…

  • Birthing at Shaarei Tzedek.

    Shaarei Tzedek has quite a different reputation to Hadassah Ein Kerem; offhand I can say that it is more of a hospital’s hospital, procedural, stiff. It’s very religiously-oriented in staff and patients. Less concerned with natural birth, more concerned with working with Hashem to get the baby out and move on (as summed up by…

  • Birthing at Hadassah Ein Kerem.

    I have heard the horror stories: laboring in a janitor’s closet, giving birth in the elevator, no epidural available, recovering in the hallway. I have heard the beautiful stories:  sweet, caring midwives, a tendancy towards leniency, rooming in available,  wonderful aftercare. While I cannot say for sure what it’s like to birth at Hadassah Ein…

  • Babies need stuff.

    Tada! In a feat I could never have pulled off on my own, we have managed to choose and order and place a deposit on a baby package consisting of furniture/stuff/things. That, about a week after we first became traumitized when taking a commerical peek at what we were in for.  To answer a few questions:  What…