YouTube Vlogging sensations, the Holderness family, came up with a pretty unique idea for what to get the mother of your child for Mother’s Day.
Of course, Mother’s Day is really about handmade cards and trinket boxes decorated in dried pasta. But, if you forget to get the mother of your child a little something for Mother’s Day, you should expect to face her wrath.
Traditionally, a simple bouquet of flowers, a lie in and a little time to herself has been accepted by mothers across the world as being pretty damn good. Penn Holderness has just seriously raised the bar though. At her request, he decided to put himself through simulated labour as a Mother’s Day gift for his wife, Kim.
After giving birth to their two children, Kim felt it was time she shared the experience with her husband. Many men have been known to promise, ‘if I could go through this instead, I would,’ once in the delivery room, but not many men are willing to go to the same lengths as Penn Holderness.
After a little bit of research, Kim managed to track down a labour simulation device that works by causing the abdominal muscles to contract. In order to make sure things were above board, the couple headed down to a doctor’s surgery. Dr. Sameh Toma from the North Carolina Centre for Reproductive Medicine was there to assist with the labour, though it has to be said he spent most of the video laughing.
The four minute video shows Penn experiencing simulated early and active labour. What starts off as a moan soon turns into a loud cry, as the rest of the room try to hold back their giggles. Simulated labour devices are not thought to be an accurate representation of labour contractions, and in fact may only be about a third of a strength of what labouring women really experience.
Penn says he spent most of the simulated labour asking his wife to move away and feeling angry at her. At the end of the experience, Penn asks Kim whether she knows what it’s like to be a husband now.
Personally, I’d rather have a nice bunch of flowers and chocolate any day of the week. But especially on Mother’s Day. If we want to live in a world where men can experience labour pains, let’s at least make sure they are experiencing full labour pains before we go mainstream. A third of the strength is pretty watered down in my opinion.
You can find the Holderness Family on their YouTube channel to find out what else they’ve been up to.
Find out more about what labour contractions really feel like here.
