Camila Alves labored for 60 hours with her first child, before her doctor recommended taking her in for a C-section. Matthew McConaughey recalled Levi's birth, saying, "We'd been up for 40-something hours, and we went from dead tired to a really steadfast, 'Let's handle this . . . let's stay in the rhythm. Don't let the contraction be more than you.' The doctor wanted to give her an epidural, and we said, 'Give us a few more hours to keep rocking with this.' I wasn't speaking for Camila. She had the option of saying, 'Give me an epidural, right now,' whenever she wanted. This is where I learned — and no one tells you this — but having a baby is a bloody, pukey, sweaty, primeval thing! And I mean that as a beautiful thing. It is wild. But the vacuum didn't work, and the doctor said, 'C-section.'"
