As MK Gila Gamliel is now walking around the election rallies ahead of the primaries, she repeatedly hears the question 'Where have you gone?'
Or 'We haven't seen you in the media in a long time'.
She smiles, talks about the activities in the Knesset, but hides one big secret that no one has known about in the past year.
Gamliel became pregnant at the age of 48, and when the fears and anxieties of late motherhood were replaced by falling in love with the idea, a routine examination revealed that the fetus had no pulse and she underwent a painful abortion.
In an exclusive interview to be published in "Shishvat" magazine this weekend, Gamliel tells openly about the difficult year.
"It was a secret I kept in my stomach. He went with me and my amateur husband. It started when I woke up in the morning and felt unexplained weakness and heaviness. I thought it might be post-corona.
"It lasted like this for a few days and I decided to do a pregnancy test, even though there are chances at my extreme age to get pregnant ?! Suddenly I find out I'm spontaneously pregnant. This moment is a shock. I tell my husband's lover, and he's in the clouds."
"I was told I was fat"
Gamliel says that "work in the Knesset continues as usual, hard days and long nights, weakness becomes something significant. Starting a pregnancy at my age is not a simple matter. But I did not tell anyone, even though some people started asking. Avi Dichter sees that I move heavily and weakly and asks me if "Everything is fine. Some people have started commenting to me that I am obese."
But the pregnancy did not last, and Gamliel tells about it candidly.
"I had a routine follow-up with my doctor. The test starts and she looks upset, checking her pulse, looking for a sound of hope, the sound of life. Not giving up, checking again and again, but no pulse. The doctor says to wait a few days, and we determine Another check-up three days later, "she shares.
"We come for another examination. The doctor examines the pulse again, I pray in my heart, I ask the Creator of the world.
"All the fears and anxieties are gone and it becomes clear to me at this moment that I want, so want. The doctor finishes the test. Silence in the room that lasts like an eternity. She hugs me, says congratulations. The pregnancy was a miracle in the first place, I wanted it to succeed. break apart".
She said, "One moment my heart is pounding with joy. Another moment my baby's heart is silent, and so is the happiness we experienced. Right now I was supposed to be preparing for the birth, being a mother of three children. Think of my father-in-law Rabbi Shaul, who blessed us so much in every Torah lesson At my house on Sundays for a male son, there is no doubt that if he had been born I would have named him after him. "
On the question of whether it is right to have a child at an advanced age, she says, "The decision to have a child at the age of 48 is a dilemma that is ultimately personal, intimate. There is no right or wrong here.
"In our parents' generation, it was customary to get married before the age of 20. How many women today get married before the age of 20? Very few.
"The world is dynamic, life expectancy is rising, the quality of life in old age is improving every year. The recognition that there will be no more opportunity because of age was the hardest thing.
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