Waiting 27 Years for Baby Natan Yehuda

Waiting 27 Years for Baby Natan Yehuda

One of the things I love best about the days following giving birth is the opportunity to meet such a diverse collection of JewishMOMs at the hospital and then Recovery Center. It’s like entering a parallel universe where absolute strangers sit around together and shmooze and shmooze and shmooze about pregnancy and birth and motherhood. For me, personally, that’s JewishMOM Heaven.

And following this birth, I enjoyed many conversations at the hospital and Recovery Center with one first-time mother with one unforgettable story. 52-year-old Sharon Lobaton of Beitar gave birth two weeks ago to a healthy baby boy– after TWENTY-SEVEN years of marriage. When I heard Sharon’s incredible story, I was reminded of the childless women I pray for so flakily. In general, when the person I’m davening for has passed a certain amount of years of infertility, I give up. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be…” I tell myself with a shrug. But Sharon Lobaton’s story is proof… To quote Sharon’s Rebbe, Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, “Ain Yeush b’Olam Klal” We should never despair, redemption can come at any moment.

Sharon is actually well-known in Israel as the author of the bestselling book Deeper than Tears, a 573-page autobiography spanning 25 years of her struggles to finally become a mother. I’m about half way through the book know, and it is really eye-opening to hear about the tremendous physical and emotional pain infertile women suffer through.

Before I read this book, for example, a comment like “So-and-so had a baby after 5 attempts at IVF” would leave me unmoved. But now that I am reading Sharon’s account of her repeated attempts at IVF, I understand what a terribly grueling procedure IVF actually is– with the painful daily shots and the ongoing pressure of finding a nurse to inject the shots at the exact time every day (even on Shabbat or when it snows or a nurse fails to show up) and the difficult operation and the painful recovery period and the weeks of complete bed rest and the terrible tension of waiting to find out if this time would finally be THE time.

It’s also horrifying to read about the sadistic crooks who prey on infertile women, claiming that they can provide them with a child through expensive “alternative treatments.” Sharon tells, for example, about two different women who gave her excruciatingly painful (and completely ineffective) weekly massages to “open up blockages” over the course of several months. Another person sold her a muddy poultice that she applied nightly around her belly, which turned out to be poisonous. Yet another “practitioner” instructed Sharon (this is the worst one…) to sit on a boiling pot of rosemary leaves, which left her severely burnt and blistered for several months, and too ashamed to seek treatment.

Anyway, a huge mazal tov to the Lobaton family on the birth of their long-awaited son, Natan Yehuda, who was named at his bris attended by over 800 rejoicing friends and family. May all of the prayers and yearning and struggles that led to this baby’s birth help this boy to grow up into a great light to the Jewish people and the world. May we continue to hear such wonderful news!

Click here to purchase Deeper than Tears

To purchase in Israel, contact the author at 0548432670

14 comments

  1. there is a woman in our neighborhood who is in need of our prayers. She’s been married over 20 years as well, and has reconciled herself to not having children.

  2. Could you please post a link to where one can buy her book.

  3. Wow, stories like these really remind me how grateful I have to be for what I have, even when the kids are acting up! Thanks for sharing.

  4. Please Daven for Yael Sara Bat Miriam Gita for children BH.

  5. 52?
    May Hashem give her the miracle of the strength she will surely need – that, al pi teva, she will not have.
    That bris must have been SOMETHING – where did it take place, for 800 people to attend??

    • I think that when we REALLY want something, we find the strength for it. (For me, on a daily basis that’s taking the extra hour to tidy up when I’d really rather collapse: because it’s SO important for me to start the day in calm surroundings)… If Hashem blessed her with a child, He’ll give her what she needs to raise it.

    • ouch. I think if she merited such a miracle from Hashem, she will have all the strength she needs iyh. after all she went through, no child will ever be so loved. and that will be her stength. be careful what you say, she could read this, and it would hurt to read such a comment.

  6. Please pray for galit bat nitza sara and noam be chana a couple trying for 6 years. Also leah bat aliza 14 years. Everyones prayers help bring their salvation closer!

  7. Is there a website with a list of names of people who are davening for children?

  8. Hi, stumbled onto this website and thank you so much for posting this. I was diagnosed with premature ovulation failure and it’s heartbreaking to know you will not have children without IVF. I am going to order the book and explore my alternatives.

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