An Israeli-American couple is having its sabra baby - on television

When Baby Boom returns to the airwaves this week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis will be tuning it to see the beautiful and painful moments of childbirth.

By AMY SPIRO
Updated: MAY 27, 2018 18:41
Chanel and Philip Freiberg (photo credit: CHANNEL 10)
Chanel and Philip Freiberg
(photo credit: CHANNEL 10)
It is one of the most intimate moments of their lives. There is crying, screaming and yelling, as well as sweat, tears and emotion are on every face in the room. It's a hospital delivery room, and for the fifth season running, couples across Israel have invited cameras inside for the Channel Ten show Baby Boom.
When Baby Boom returns to the airwaves this week, hundreds of thousands of Israelis will be tuning it to see the beautiful and painful moments of childbirth. And one of the couples taking part is Chanel and Philip Freiberg, two Americans buildings their life and family together in Israel.
The pair are both from Los Angeles, but met in Tel Aviv almost six years ago. Chanel was living in LA, the daughter of Israeli parents, and just paying a visit to Israel. Philip grew up in Los Angeles, but had made aliya and was living in Israel.
"I had always wanted to live in Israel," Chanel said, "but he was the best excuse in my life."
When we meet the Freibergs, Chanel is heavily pregnant and they are visiting the Beilinson Hospital's maternity ward in Petah Tikva to check things out. While many pregnant women are anxious to give birth already, Chanel is adamant that things not progress until her mother arrives from the US.
While she wants her mom by her side, Chanel definitely feels more at home in Israel.
"In Los Angeles things are very fake, and here it's very real," she said.
Fast forward a few weeks, and Chanel's mom has arrived - and the baby is ready to make its own arrival into the world. The couple get comfortable in the hospital room, and settle in for a long day ahead.
Amid the pain and the contractions, they get a visit from a surprise celebrity visitor: TV personality Lihi Griner. Griner knows both members of the couple from way back when, and came with her own advice for childbirth - and her own labor stories, including giving birth without an epidural. "It's terrible, but it's also just not that terrible," she tells Chanel.
But before long it's time to bring baby boy Jordan in the world, and he arrives along with the tears of his mother, father and both his grandmothers.
"That feeling when he's on me is the best feeling in the world," Chanel said after getting to hold her brand new baby. "It's a feeling of warmth and love and happiness and everything good in the world is sitting on you, on you heart."
Philip was no less emotional: "I wasn't ready for how special this feeling would be, for how it would take over my whole body," he said. "I can't stop smiling. This is the best time in my life."
Fast forward almost a year, and Jordan is happy and healthy - and not far away from becoming a big brother. The Freiberg family is ready for round two.   
Baby Boom airs on Channel Ten on Monday nights after the news starting on May 28.


Related Tags
reality tv