A Tale of Unconditional Love and Life’s Greatest Miracle.
The happiest day of my life was undoubtedly the day Thom was born.
I’d always known that motherhood was in my future, whether or not I had a partner by my side.
In fact, during my first phone call with Yoni, I made it clear—kids were non-negotiable.
Thankfully, he was on board. It took a bit longer than I’d hoped, but in September 1996, I got the news I’d been waiting for: I was pregnant.
I loved every minute of being pregnant.
No morning sickness, no mood swings, no real discomfort—just the pure joy of knowing I was creating life.
Maybe it was because I was too busy being the breadwinner to even think about feeling unwell, but I truly loved the feeling of something miraculous growing inside me.
I was bringing a new soul into the world, and it felt like magic.
Contrary to what many of my friends experienced, I adored my pregnant body.
Even ten days before giving birth, I didn’t look that pregnant.
One of my students insisted on making maternity clothes that didn’t hide my body but celebrated it.
“You should be proud of it and show it to the world,” she said, and so I did.
My due date was May 10 and our plan was to have a home birth, which was quite common in Holland.
We also wanted a water birth, a concept that was still pretty new at the time.
But as fate would have it, life had other plans.
On April 30th, I was supposed to receive the birthing pool, so I stayed home while Yoni took a friend out to experience Queen’s Day—a massive street festival where all of Amsterdam turns into one giant flea market.
Just an hour after Yoni left, I woke up feeling something wet between my legs.
“Strange,” I thought. “My due date is still 11 days away, and I have no contractions. Could my water have broken?”
But when I checked, it wasn’t water—it was blood.
I tried to stay calm. “No panic,” I told myself.
“Clean up, and if it continues for the next hour, call the midwife.”
But common sense kicked in, and I called her immediately. She was at my door in less than 15 minutes.
After a quick check, she reassured me that everything seemed fine, but she wanted to take me to the hospital just to be sure.
I tried to page Yoni—yes, this was back in the days before mobile phones—but he didn’t hear it, likely due to the noise and music in the streets.
I left him a note and headed to the hospital.
Once there, they ran some tests and monitored me, but everything appeared normal, though the bleeding persisted.
They decided to keep me overnight. Meanwhile, Yoni returned home, found the note, and rushed to the hospital.
I can only imagine the panic he must have felt. He stayed with me as long as visiting hours allowed and then reluctantly went home.
In the early hours of the next morning, I started feeling contractions.
I called the nurse, but she dismissed them. Embarrassed, I didn’t call again until they became more frequent and intense.
Finally, around 8:00 AM, a new nurse confirmed it: we were going to have a baby today.
All our plans for a serene, candlelit, water birth went out the window, but when I arrived in the labor room, a cheerful midwife welcomed me.
“Well,” she said with a smile, “It’s going to be literally Labour Day…” It was May 1st, after all.
When I asked if I could call Yoni, she responded, “It’s YOUR day. Whatever you want, we’ll make it happen.”
Yoni arrived with everything we’d prepared for the birth, except the water pool.
Instead, I made use of the shower in the room.
The day was long—full of walking, crouching, and Yoni’s soothing massages—but I managed to stay relatively calm, save for one moment when I was asked to get into bed for a check.
That’s when my water broke, and the midwife told me it was time to push.
When someone says push, I push. Less than thirty seconds later, Thom made her grand entrance into the world.
Thom simply dropped into Yoni’s hands. He was the first to hold her.
Only after she started breathing on her own did they hand Yoni the scissors to cut the umbilical cord.
When Thom was finally lying on top of me, I felt a sense of completeness, of pure joy and love, that I had never felt before and still feel today.
Watching Yoni wash and dress her, I saw the moment he experienced unconditional love for the first time—a love that has never wavered when it comes to Thom.
The next day, when we brought her home, I knew deep in my heart that we were finally a family.
It was everything I’d ever wanted and more.
