Being pregnant and giving birth is hard enough without the men around you saying and doing the most ridiculous things. And yet, they do! Reddit user thatoneapexlegend asked OB/GYNs to share the most “mindblowing” thing they’d heard a husband or boyfriend of a pregnant person say or do, and a lot of people chimed in with their experiences…
1.
“I’m a PA working in inpatient OB/GYN. We had a father bring his PS4 to a delivery room so he could play Spider-Man while his wife got induced.”
2.
“Dad was busy taking selfies to post on IG while his wife was on the other side of the room giving birth. When asked if he wanted to help he declined and said, ‘she got it.'”
3.
“OB/GYN here… One recent young dad who was very nervous about delivery asked me if I ‘do this often’ (as in deliver babies). Which prompted his girlfriend to say in exasperation, ‘this is her JOB!'”
4.
“The husband was full-on flirting with the midwife as his wife was fully dilated and pushing. He asked her out.”
5.
“I am not an OB/GYN, but I do have a friend that is. One of her more recent crazy comments was a guy who thought that giving birth gave women massive orgasms. He genuinely believed that was how they pushed the baby out, and that it felt great.”
6.
“On my OB rotation, the husband said, ‘Holy shit,’ as the baby crowned… then he passed out and hit his head on the bedside table on his way down. He had to be admitted to the same hospital his wife was having the baby at. She ended up getting discharged before he did.”
7.
“Recently had a husband compare the pain of his wife’s labor (which included forceps to remove the baby) to the pain of his eczema.”
—Anon
8.
“I had admitted a pretty sick young women with pre-eclampsia a couple of years ago. She was stable, so her husband left to get food and some things from home. A few hours later when I was called back to the room (the patient had progressed rapidly and was ready to deliver), I entered the room and it just reeked of fast food. The husband had gotten enough fast food for four people and had eaten it all himself. The room smelled like a fryer. The poor mom was on magnesium sulfate and was NPO (no food or drink), so the smell had just added to her nausea and caused her to vomit over and over. My nurse had asked the husband repeatedly to eat in the waiting room so as not to stimulate his wife’s nausea. To no avail.”
9.
“I’m a trained lactation consultant. This means I’m an expert in helping new mothers breastfeed. One couple had an order for my assistance due to poor feeding… I needed the mom to express some milk for baby by hand, and began to demonstrate said technique. I kid you not, the dad takes this exact opportunity to jump in and say, ‘Do you want me to help? I can get it started by sucking it out! We do this all the time!’ Cue the mom’s death glare.”
10.
“I have been told by one midwife that a guy asked her to hurry up with the birth as the footy was starting soon.”
11.
“When I was on my labor and delivery rotation in med school, we had two women in labor at the same time with the same father. Dude kept going back and forth between the rooms just to take turns getting yelled at by each mom.”
12.
“When I was working night shift in the mother/baby department, a couple came in very concerned because the pregnant woman had started bleeding. The admitting nurse asked the color and amount of the blood (it’s relevant) and the chick says, ‘There’s still some on his chin there, that’s what color it was.’ The guy looked embarrassed and the nurse kept a straight face long enough to get out of the room and tell the rest of the unit.”
13.
“I’m a nurse and helped deliver this girl’s first baby. I was still in school at the time. She was like 19 I think. The father, who was obviously much older, was also in the room. After the baby was born, everyone was all excited and emotional, except for the father, who was just like ‘eh,’ and shrugged it off.”
14.
“I had a scheduled C-section. My husband was awesome and supportive, and while I was getting the epidural, he decided to keep me calm and relaxed by having a normal conversation with me. So, as the needle is going into my back, he holds my hand and says, ‘Hey, the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie is in theatres tomorrow!'”
15.
“After my mom gave birth to my sister, she had to get stitches for a tear. She says that my dad asked the doctor, ‘Could you put a couple more stitches in there?'”
16.
“I worked in a diagnostic centre. OB/GYN refers the patient for a transvaginal ultrasound to find out why she is having fertility issues. Tech inserts probe. The woman flinches in pain. Tech asks if it hurts during intercourse. The woman explains the husband doesn’t insert it in the vagina. ‘No, here,’ she said, while pointing to her belly button. The tech came out red-faced… she had to call the doctor and explain why the patient was having trouble getting pregnant.”
17.
“One of the OB/GYN docs I work with told me about a couple who came in for infertility counselling. She was asking them about the length of her cycle, lifestyle, etc, and came to find out that they weren’t penetrating.”
18.
“My mom was a general practitioner. She once had a 15-year-old girl come in who had a pregnancy test show positive, but was adamant she couldn’t be pregnant. My mom confirmed the pregnancy, but the girl still refused to believe it was true. She went on to explain to my mom that it was impossible for her to get pregnant because her boyfriend had told her that if she lay completely still during sex, then she wasn’t ‘sexually active’ and couldn’t get pregnant.”
19.
“My sister is a nurse in the mom/baby unit and will also work in labor and delivery. One dad asked for a C-section, ‘so her vagina wouldn’t be ruined.'”
20.
“A woman’s husband was worried about getting a parking ticket, so he figured he would park in one of the massive parking garages and then walk her up to the door as she was literally giving birth. They obviously didn’t make it, and she delivered in the car. They were extremely religious, and to prevent her body from being ‘exposed’ to what could potentially be a male doctor, they kept her pants on the whole time. Baby, placenta, and all were just chilling in this woman’s pants. It was horrifying. Baby and Mom were okay in the end.”
21.
“I am a flight medic who has delivered three babies. I’ll never forget any of them. The second baby I delivered was about five weeks early, roadside… The family had gone camping in the desert, and Mom went into labor. By the time we arrived, there was no turning back, and Baby’s head was visible. Mom was sort of squatting with her forearms on the middle row of seats in a van, and her booty was aimed out the door (she was clothed in a loose dress). Just as she was pushing the head out, Dad said, ‘Wait wait wait… we might get blood on the floor!’ Mom rounded on him with the biggest death glare and said, ‘Fuck your mom’s van!’ That became a unit motto.”
22.
“Not a OB/GYN, but a med student. In one of my rotations, I had an encounter with a father who wanted us to make sure his wife only produced male children by using some drugs or a procedure.”
23.
“There was a nurse who was very attractive. A father-to-be looked her in the eye and said to her, ‘I’d pick the peanuts out of your poop.’ I witnessed it, and couldn’t BELIEVE my ears.”
24.
“With my first pregnancy, my boyfriend asked my OB why I was so angry and mean all the time. She looked him right in the face and gave the solid answer of, ‘She’s eight months pregnant.'”
25.
“I’m the husband. The first time my wife got pregnant, I had to ask where the baby comes out, among many other questions about the female reproductive system. Pretty sure my wife was embarrassed by me.”
26.
“When the midwife told my wife it was time to start pushing, I asked if they could wait so I could poop first. Glad I did too! She pushed for a while!”
27.
“Not a doc, I’m the mom. All the nurses and docs on our ward kept coming into my room to see the mom whose husband shouted, ‘That was great, let’s have another one’ in the delivery room before the baby was even handed to me!”
28.
“Mid-labor, my dad complained that my mom was squeezing his hand ‘too hard’ and that it hurt him.”
29.
And finally, “Apparently, my dad asked my mom’s doctor when she was in labor how long it would take me to open my eyes (like puppies/kittens).”
What is the wildest birth partner story you’ve ever heard? Share in the comments or in the anonymous form nelow!