Yep, the old stereotype is alive and well.
How many times have you seen it? The guy’s in the delivery room, the woman having the baby looks either beautific or mad as hell, the guy sees the miracle of life emerging the her lady-parts*, and he pukes, or faints, or both, and has to get hauled away, and becomes the butt of family and friendly jokes for the next 18 years (and again when the first grandkid comes along). And now thanks to the magic of the internet, this tired old trope can make the rounds forever.
C’mon, people. we all know that most guys can probably handle the birth experience a lot better than this. Although I’ll cop to the fact that if I’m ever in a birthroom, I’ll be by the person’s head, waiting to see a cleaned-up kid. Otherwise I will be That Guy.
So what really happens to men in the birthroom? I’m guessing something like this:
I’m sure there will still be people who lose their sh*t in the birthroom, and that moment will haunt them forever. But the cartoon dude sitting dazed on the floor in a halo of little stars and twittering birds? Yeah, over.
*Yes, I’m well aware that guys can have babies, and the other party in the room could be a woman, or two people, or any combination of people of any gender. But we’re dealing with commonly seen stereotypes and tropes here, so bear with me.
Baby Photo: Andrew Malone/Flickr
All good points but I’ll admit that I laughed pretty hard at 10: “Ngaaaaa!” (Ngaaaaa)
The other side to the coin. At my job, we get birth announcements. At the bottom of the announcement it usually says something like mom and child are doing well. Never a mention of dad so I used to joke yes, but dad’s a wreck. I think the other side is people think paternity leave is a day off for dad and that he’s got it easy. Maybe compared to mom, but anyone who’s even just baby sat can tell you that taking care of children isn’t easy. To do it day in and day out, that’s commitment and love.
Look at the baby’s face thoe!
He’s like “I got my eye on you fool.”
For me that was very funny. Let’s not become the kind of person that is over sensitive and and see offenses everywhere.
I have been at thousands of births. Most dads/partners do great in the delivery room and aren’t visibly freaking out. They look a lot like the women giving birth — varying between uncertainty, calm, exhaustion, the giggles, excitement, determination, fear, and love. A lot of dads cried when the baby was born, which always made me cry a little too — it’s very moving to see. I did have *one* guy who suddenly fainted and fell down a few minutes after his baby was born…. kind of slid under the bed, between the doctor and the bed. I just had… Read more »
This article was short and sweet, and I loved it! Thanks for writing :). A good reminder that stereotypes are generally not true, and everything depends on each individual person.