Moms: Ever wish the men in your life could feel what it’s really like to deliver a baby? In China’s Shandong Province, now men can, thanks to a local hospital.
According to Central European News (CEN), Chinese men in the city of Jinan have been lining up to find out what it’s like to experience the agonizing contractions that women endure during childbirth. Most of the volunteers are partners of pregnant women.
The hospital said they want to show men how much women suffer through childbirth, and to give men greater respect for what women go through.
“The event was aimed at creating awareness and more respect for childbearing women, especially highlighting the entire laborious nine-month process leading up to birth,” a hospital spokesman told CEN.
To recreate the contractions and pain of childbirth, hospital technicians used machines to stimulate the men’s abdomens with electric shocks to make it contract.
Some men seemed reluctant— having been dragged there by their partners— while others were more enthusiastic, CEN reported.
“My wife is expecting a baby in three months, and we had a row when I told [her] not to make such a fuss,” father-to-be Guang Liao, 29, told CEN. “When she found out about this project, she told me had to sign up for it, so I also know what is was all about.”
"I must admit I was curious and if what I experienced is really what she goes through, then I have to say I have changed my attitude. It was really incredibly painful and I only had it for a few minutes. If it went on for hours I don't know if I'd be able to bear it,” he told the news agency.
In a video posted on LiveLeak in 2013 that went viral, two men underwent a similar experiment. The video shows the stunned men writhing in pain and their wives supporting them— while laughing.
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