Wednesday, October 05, 2005

A Doc's Life - Memorable Moments 8

Scenario - Labour ward of a teaching hospital

I had just helped bring into the world a healthy baby, and had delivered the placenta. I was repairing the episiotomy when suddenly, I hear a "PLONK" of something dropping on the floor behind me.

"Did you drop the baby???!!!" I yelled at the nurse in panic, in the middle of a stitch.

"No," the nurse replied calmly. "Daddy just fainted" she continued matter of factly (I guess it was a fairly common occurence for the men NOT be able to take the bloodshed, gore & trauma of childbirth).

I had to check Dad for head injuries (fortunately, he was fine) after finishing the repair.

I have always known that men are not as macho as they'd like you to think. Somehow, the sight of the episiotomy & the placenta being delivered are the things that tip them over...

2 comments:

Chen said...

that's why in our hospital, we always tell the father to come in only (to accompany the wife who's in labour) if they can stand it... cos we don't have enough ppl to resuscitate the father is he fainted :P

aliendoc said...

That's what we did too...but in this case, I guess Mr Macho Dad did not want to admit to his squeamishness :)