30 hours? That's a strong woman right there. - Kevin Winter/NBCUniversal/Getty ImagesWhen "Lost" actress Evangeline Lilly welcomed her first child into the world this last May, she probably wasn't expecting her real-life childbirth to be even more physically taxing than her character Kate Austen's struggles on the fictional island.
The 32-year-old mother revealed on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" that she was in labor for 30 hours before finally giving birth to her son, Kahekili. And those were 30 painful hours: eschewing pain relievers, the "Real Steel" actress opted for a natural birth at the home she shares with father and boyfriend Norman Kali. (Given that her son's name refers to the Hawaiian god of thunder, you have to wonder if she chose that name before or after the 30 hours of natural labor.)
"It turns out that it was 30 hours of natural," Lilly recounted to Leno. "After about five hours of pushing, my midwife and my birthing assistant said, 'You know, we have a few suggestions.' And I was like, 'Really? After five hours of pushing you have a few suggestions? You couldn't have told me five minutes in?'"
Lilly is hardly the only celebrity to endure an inordinately lengthy labor, however. Keri Russell, who announced her second pregnancy just this summer, spent 38 hours bringing her first-born into the world back in 2007.
Although more than a day of pushing and puffing certainly attests to the "Real Steel" of these actresses, other stars have endured almost unimaginably long labor periods. Gwyneth Paltrow was in labor for 70 hours in 2004 giving birth to Apple, her daughter with Coldplay singer Chris Martin. Although it was a difficult birth, a recovered Paltrow told "Good Morning America" not long after that, "It was worth every minute. I came out of it thinking, 'Well, I would have amputated my legs for her.' So that was nothing."
Milla Jovovich just barely outpaces Gwyn in the child-birthing marathon with 72 hours of labor under stretchy hospital gown. The "Resident Evil" star coincidentally went into labor on Halloween of 2008, eventually going under the epidural after two sleepless nights.
As for Evangeline Lilly, her drug-free 30-hour labor hasn't shaken her resolve for what she described to Leno as mothering "a brood" of children. "If I wasn't working right now, I would be trying [to have more]," she stated. Considering Lilly is currently working on Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Hobbit," the five-month-old Kahekili might be the only baby in the world with an elf for a mother.
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