Such a feat doesn't mean that it is "generally borne" by the father.
>From my own extensive conversations with midwives I have been told, again
and again, that the pains of labor are an important part of childbirth. In
our generally pain-hating culture it is hard to beleive, but the
transformative effects of surrendering to that agony are critical to the
mother's birth experience. I have come to appreciate this: no pain, no gain.
I also want to note that, according to the best studies that I have seen,
the socieites wherein men experience the labor pains are thos ein which the
men are essentially trying to take some of the credit or virtue of the
birth away form the mother. It is less of a compassionate or sympathetic
virtue than it appears to be.
YGMV.
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