Right before giving birth, Melinda French Gates was alone at the hospital. She said she loved it.
In her new memoir, “The Next Day,” Gates, 60, shared details of her 27-year marriage and divorce from Bill Gates, including how she dealt with different life transitions.
One of them was the birth of Jennifer Gates, the first of the Gates’ three children, in 1996. Gates said the birthing process was long, and that she spent the beginning of her labor experience by herself while Bill Gates returned to work.
Bill Gates went to work as a ‘compromise’
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
First-time deliveries often take longer because the body’s tissues and muscles haven’t been stretched before. Gates was told that “labor can last an astonishingly long time,” she wrote in the book.
The Gates’s arrived at the hospital before Gates technically started feeling contractions. Because they were early, their doctor debated sending them back home to wait.
Instead, Gates said she “settled on a compromise” with her husband: he would go to the office while she stayed at the hospital. The plan was to call him once she entered active labor.
She enjoyed the solo time
“Before you roll your eyes, keep in mind that there really wasn’t anything for him to do yet,” Gates wrote in the book.
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She said she was “cheerfully alone,” roaming the halls of the Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, Washington. To keep herself occupied, she read Edith Wharton’s “The Custom of the Country” and thought about her upcoming delivery.
Gates said Bill Gates’ assistant was “hovering by the phone” all day, expecting a call at any minute. Once she entered active labor, Gates told Bill to hurry over.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
When he arrived at the hospital, she said he was “fascinated” by the delivery process, which took over 14 and a half hours. She described the experience as “really hard,” due to a complication in the baby’s positioning. Gates also opted out of pain medication, wanting to “feel every sensation.”
In the end, Gates remembers immediately falling in love with her new daughter. “I was absolutely smitten,” she wrote. “A new chapter began.”
