Dude Says Moms Don’t Need Epidurals, Women Of The Internet Kindly Ask Him To STFU

A man on the internet tells moms everywhere we don’t “need epidurals”

Another day, another man taking to the internet to mansplain. This time, some dude decided to dictate to women everywhere the proper way to handle something he won’t ever actually experience: childbirth.

Writer Nicole Cliffe often does the Lord’s work by outing asshole dudes on Reddit and elsewhere for their awful takes on relationships, parenting, and life in general. If you don’t follow her on Twitter, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Her most recent (and deserving) target: a man who took it upon himself to let all women know we don’t need epidurals.

Yeah. Uh-huh. See for yourself.

Regarding epidurals: “Women don’t need them at all. Never have. Since we only started using them in modern medicine.” OMG, dude. Just because you’ve been a spectator alongside two births does not in any way mean you have license to tell other women how to handle the pain of childbirth.

In that vein, how about we just eliminate protective cups from all male-dominated sports? Just let those crown jewels fly free, vulnerable to all manner of injury/line drives/hockey pucks/knee jerks. Men don’t NEED them at all — but what do I know, I’m just a woman who has never had testicles.

The replies to Cliffe’s tweet are, as you’d expect, comedy gold.

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/950909385227866112

https://twitter.com/jetpack/status/950835604975226881

Ha! But seriously, who is this dude to say what women need or don’t need in the throes of pain? Shaming anyone for how they handle serious physical pain is just a shitty thing to do, but shaming laboring mothers? When you’re a man who doesn’t know what childbirth feels like? GTFOH with that trash.

I was only four centimeters into a breathtakingly painful back labor when my doctor offered me an epidural (I wasn’t about to let him break my water without one). I was hesitant at first, until he looked me in the eye and bluntly told me, “There are no prizes in heaven for forcing yourself to endure pain.” Less than 15 minutes later, the anesthesiologist was injecting me with a line to The Good Stuff and it was smooth sailing until my three-hour push time. No regrets, 13/10 would repeat.

The “modern medicine” barb in that guy’s rant is a nice touch, too. I presume this man refuses all antibiotics and pain medications in lieu of leeches and ground thistle paste akin to the medicine of Ye Olden Times.

Yep, that sounds about right.