Behold The Poster-Boy For Men During Labor

Image of man wincing during his wife’s labor goes viral

Pregnancy and labor can be all-consuming for women. So all-consuming that we sometimes forget how stressful it is for men, too. It’s only fair to acknowledge that they also go through a hell of a lot in the days leading up to childbirth – and that childbirth itself can be a terrifying shit-show for fathers.

Alisha Baxter posted a hilarious (sorry) photo of her husband to the Today Facebook page that pretty much sums up what some men go through during labor. Behold, the poster boy for men during labor:

Look. At. His. Fingers.

Alisha’s cousin took the photo of her husband, Jive, during the birth of their baby girl, Blakely. Her cousin gets all the cookies for catching this moment. This is going to make family and friends laugh for years. Years.

“At the time of the picture I was starting to push after nearly 24 hours of labour,” Alisha told The Daily Mail “He wasn’t saying anything, he was just really nervous. Before we were in the birthing suite he had a little moment crying because he couldn’t help me through the pain.” It’s easy for us to forget about just how stressful that moment is for dads, too. Easy mistake. Hard to think about how anyone else is feeling when you are trying to push a human out of your body. ‘Us blokes go through a lot of pain as well. As you can see in my face haha,’ Jive commented on the Facebook picture.

The comment section is filled with thousands of stories, because this is just one of those moments that we never forget. There are so many emotions going on — it’s truly hard to describe if you’ve never experienced it — joy, pain, terror, confusion, happiness… you’re just all over the place. People even shared some of their own photos.

I’m not sure I ever thanked my husband for being such a trooper through the birth of our two children. I’m going to go do that right now. As for Jive, he’s a smart man; there are clearly no words coming out of his mouth, he’s just enduring the pain. The look on his face is priceless — and a reminder that men don’t have it easy during childbirth either.