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Having a baby.

Like any place else there's good and bad. Our first, Yehuda, was born in Brooklyn. I had two attending physicians and neither one made it to the delivery. The opera singer Beverly Sills always talked about her brother the gynecologist. Well, he was one of my doctors, Dr. Silverman. He was wonderful. His partner was Dr. Shulman and he was also wonderful.

Talk about Speedy Gonzales. The resident said that he could give me something to slow down the contractions so that my doctor could do the delivery. I said no way. I came here to have a baby and if he misses it that's his tough luck. Yehuda was born and my doctor arrived in the middle of the suturing.

Here in Israel I've only used midwives. Most of them are excellent. My only difficulty was with a midwife who was single and never had a baby. She was trying to convince me that she knew what it was like. Sorry, but she couldn't convince me.

When I arrived at Hadassah Mt. Scopus to deliver Shira, a friend who had lived in Ramot also just arrived from Mitzpe Yericho. She brought along a midwife, another friend who had lived in Ramot and moved to Mitzpe Yericho. Nira (the midwife) asked if I'd like her to deliver my baby and I said yes. I knew her to be a wonderful midwife. She was right in the room next door when they called her in. She dashed in -- and missed my delivery!

"Miriam, you always do that to me!!" she told me.

Afraid. (Of what?)

Used to American gynecologists. Nothing like that here. Well, actually that's not exactly true. I finally found a gynecologist that I was happy with. He was an American. He used to work in the Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn. Since he retired in 2004 I found another one and she's okay but does not compare to Dr. Rosenberg.

Midwives. Resentment to Lamaze.

Miriam:

Our first child, Yehuda, was born in Brooklyn, NY during a time when the Lamaze method of natural childbirth was in vogue. We took the course offered at the Brookdale Hospital Medical Center where I worked. In order for husbands to be allowed to join their wives during the delivery they had to "graduate" from this course. It was a wonderful course and very much prepared me for my first delivery and also for my subsequent five deliveries.

I wanted to take a refresher course here in Israel before Devorah was born but there was no Lamaze refresher course available. I signed up for a course in the old Shaarei Zedek Hospital, äëðä ììéãä, preparation for childbirth. I wasn't sure that I wanted to take the course but they wouldn't allow me to audit a class until I had paid. So I paid, and I audited, and I decided that this was not the course for me. It was very different from the Lamaze method that I knew. While you are in labor you do not want to be confused between different methods of breathing and exercises. It took six months to get the refund.

I had registered at the old Shaarei Zedek Hospital to deliver Devorah, but I wasn't too thrilled with the idea. The delivery "rooms" were separated by curtains. I had heard that the relationship between the staff and patients was wonderful, but group delivery did not turn me on. However, Hadassah Hospital in Ein Karem was much too far for me to travel. My deliveries are fast.

At the beginning of my ninth month they opened up the Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus. I rushed over to register and was the first non-staff person to registr. There were six other women ahead of me on the list. When I arrived to deliver Devorah I requested the room with the view. The midwives didn't know what to do about that, but since the room had just been vacated they put me in that room. In between contractions Dovid was excitedly pointing out the various sights that could be seen. The midwives were not used to the Lamaze method and at first made fun of the breathing. Let them laugh. It works for me and that's really all that matters.

Children's friends.

My kids are the most superior of all the superior.

They really are the best. Pirchei. Yehuda sang with Pirchei Yerushalayim for one year. He was nine years at the time. His schedule at HaMesorah, the Talmud Torah where he learned, finished too late for him to get to rehearsals on time. He sang out the year, participated in a performance in Binyanei Haooma and then stopped.

Whenever I can, I offer other people, including my own kids, proteksia.

I pass on information about jobs that are available, that I can't take for whatever reason, to friends. They get to translate or edit, and then they owe me proteksia. Actually, it's not a very bad system.

It works.

It makes for a more personal relationship than through the ads, and everybody does everybody else favors.

It's a friendly way of doing this for each other.

But it's not real friendship.

It's the kind of friendship that comes from having a sort of business relationship, but the kind of business relationship that you want to have because it's mutually beneficial. Writing for local computer magazineÌÐ linking up with an American, writing for computer magazines there.

As if I'm really an expert in computers. bilingualism. This is the only place to raise kids.

Make it easy.

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