Julia Louis-Dreyfus talks ‘awful’ moment a nurse recognized her during labor

While talking with famed cook Ina Garten, actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus opened up on her podcast “Wiser Than Me” about her unusual birth experience when she was pregnant with her now 30-year-old son Henry.

During their discussion, Garten and Louis-Dreyfus talked about everything from the kitchen to their respective home lives. Toward the end of their conversation, Louis-Dreyfus asked Garten about her decision not to have children despite marrying her husband when she was just 20.

Garten said the decision to not have kids wasn’t a difficult decision. “No, it wasn’t any struggle at all,” she said. “I had no interest in having children.”

Garten continued, saying, “I had a terrible childhood. It was nothing I wanted to re-create. I think now looking back, I might say I see my friends with their children and I understand what it could be, but when I was 20, I didn’t want anything to do with it.”

Garten said her beloved husband, Jeffrey, would have been “a great parent” and probably “would have loved having children,” but he wanted her to be happy more.

For most of the decisions Garten made in her life, she said she never looked back.

That’s when Louis-Dreyfus opened up about her birthing experience with her oldest son. She was explaining that she was in the hospital during labor when she took herself to the bathroom.

The pair had been discussing how for a lot of people, because they’re on television or on the computer in people’s homes, their on-screen characters start to feel like friends and fans become relaxed in their presence.

“Which can be lovely, but there is a downside,” Louis-Dreyfus said.

“When I was giving birth to my first son,” she continues. “When you’re in labor, they put that monitor around your tummy, and I was in the bathroom and I was naked and I had the thing around my tummy. I was massive. I gained like 50 pounds when I was pregnant.”

“I was standing there and my water broke,” she continued. “All of a sudden the nurse came in the room and I went, ‘My water broke.’”

Much to Louis-Dreyfus’ surprise, the nurse’s reaction wasn’t what she expected it would be. “And (the nurse) goes ‘Elaine!’”

As Louis-Dreyfus and Garten laughed, Louis-Dreyfus admitted “it was so awful.”

“Isn’t that crazy,” Louis-Dreyfus questioned, “That’s crazy,” Garten confirmed.