The Childbirth Simulator Gives the Boys a Taste of Labor Pain

If there is one thing I’ve learned in the last few months, it’s that the sight of a pregnant belly brings out strange impulses in people. Suddenly, everyone’s an expert on my pregnancy and my baby, except me. It’s not that I don’t appreciate pregnancy hacks and advice, but when I’m constantly getting unsolicited advice on how I should be feeling and what I should be doing, it can get a bit irritating. Superstitions and cultural-specific wisdom, like “you need to eat three boiled goose eggs in your first trimester so that your baby won’t get sick” and “you need to eat lots of grapes so that your baby has big beautiful eyes” are one thing, but perhaps the thing that irritates me the most is all the “oh let me tell you how you’re going to feel” advice from my single male friends. Sorry, but I really don’t need pregnancy mansplained to me.

So that got me thinking, if these guys are so eager to shell out pregnancy advice, maybe they should get a taste of what this whole process actually like. When I discovered that some of Beijing’s maternity hospitals, including Oasis International Hospital actually offer men the chance to experience labor with the childbirth simulation machines, I just had to see this for myself.

It doesn’t look intimidating, but it is…

If you’ve never heard of one before, a labor simulator is a machine with shock pads that are placed where the ovaries are (or would be, for men) and deliver a mild shock for about five minutes. The machine has 10 levels and the nurse controlling the machine can gradually increase the shock level from one to 10. According to the team at Oasis, it’s very rare to see a man make it all the way to level 10. Most give up around levels three or four.

So What Does the Childbirth Simulator Feel Like?

To see the machine in action, we hooked up Oasis International Hospital’s Outreach & Communications Coordinator Joshua Hiller. Thanks for being a good sport!

A few seconds into level two Hiller tells us “it feels like someone’s pressing on my groin area and it’s going up to my stomach. It’s slightly ticklish. I can feel the electroshocks going up and down my body.” Level two doesn’t seem so bad…

Turning the machine up to level three and we could start seeing beads of sweat on Hiller’s forehead. “It feels like there’s tightening around my groin and legs. There’s shock going through my whole body” says Hiller through gritted teeth. By level five “the pain jumps around my whole body” and Hiller calls it quits. “Simulation failed” the machine loudly announces. Basically this means that Hiller gave up when his imaginary baby had just started crowning.

“I need an epidural…”

According to the Mayo Clinic, each birthing experience is different and active labor can last four to eight hours or more. This is when the cervix starts to dilate and your contractions become stronger. During our little experiment, Hiller only lasted about 10 minutes with the childbirth simulator, although that was probably long enough to give him a bit of perspective on what giving birth is really like.

At Oasis International Hospital the labor simulation machine is a complimentary experience available for all expecting parents and staff encourage expecting dads to make an appointment to try it, so they can better understand what their partner will be going through in a few short months. But it’s not only for dads: moms-to-be are also encouraged to try it, as the simulation machine can give you a taste of what labor pains feels like, although the real thing is a much deeper and longer experience.

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Aside from Hillier, we spoke to a few other men who have tested out the labor simulation machine, and they said that it was a whole different type of pain that what they’ve ever experienced before. Just a few short minutes of being hooked up to the labor simulator, and they confessed to feeling exhausted like they’ve just ran a marathon, saying that no amount of workouts or time under a tattoo needle could have ever prepared them for it.

Watch Hiller’s experience with the labor simulator below:

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Sources: www.mayoclinic.org

Photos: Uni You, Christian Bowen on Unsplash