We all know that giving birth can be a painful process for the person who's in labor, but there can be a real risk to partners too. One man ended up with a broken hand while his wife was giving birth to their twins — all because she squeezed a little too hard when he held her hand though her delivery.
The whole thing happened three years ago, but the dad is still conflicted over what happened.
The man and his then-fiancée were expecting twins, and when she reached about seven-and-a-half months along, she went into labor, he explained in a Reddit post.
Her contractions started in the middle of the night.
"The hospital was about two-and-a-half hours away from my brother-in-law's house," he continued. "By the time we arrived the doctors said it was too late to have an epidural and the babies were coming now."
Like any supportive dad-to-be, he gave his wife his hand to hold onto as she went through her delivery.
He promptly forgot about the gesture as he waited and watched his two daughters be born. After the newborns were taken to the neonatal intensive care unit, the new dad's BIL finally arrived at the hospital "and asked what happened to my hand."
When he looked down -- his hand was "completely swollen and gross looking."
He couldn't even move his fingers.
"It was my right hand and I'm a lefty so it wasn't as bad as it could've been," he continued.
As his adrenaline started to die down, his hand started hurting.
Although his wife was sleeping, one of the nurses came in and was just as shocked to see his mangled hand.
"Her jaw dropped when she saw my hand and said I needed to go get that checked out," he wrote.
After visiting his new daughters many times, the next day the dad thought it would be fine to sneak away and get an X-ray.
"I told my wife where I was going but she got defensive and acted like I was accusing her of something," he continued. "I also didn't leave her alone, her mother and father were with her and said that I needed to go get checked out."
The hand was "definitely broken."
Although the doctors thought his injury was "hysterical," his wife was definitely mad when he got back.
"I didn't let her see my hand before I went to the ER so she had no idea that it could be broken," he clarified.
However, "I kinda still feel like an a– for leaving her but she got over it pretty quick so I'm not sure," he wrote. He asked the community if he was in the wrong.
In truth, no one blamed the dad for leaving.
"NTA," one person wrote. "Your HAND WAS BROKEN."
"What kind of a– would be angry at someone seeking treatment for broken hand???" someone else wondered. "If [she] felt guilty and embarrassed about it why couldn't she just apologize? Don't get p—ed at the person in legitimate need of medical attention. Wtf."
"What were you going to do, NOT get medical attention for a fracture in a timely way?" someone else asked.
In an edit to his post, the dad revealed that there was more going on than just an impromptu trip to the emergency room.
"A few hours earlier we had found out one of [the twins] had failed their hearing test and wouldn't be able to get a cochlear implant or hearing aids which stressed out my wife, a lot," he explained.
As for his hand, his wife "is an amazing weight lifter" — "so that kinda explains her super-strength."
Ultimately, it was the dad's twin sister who's been guilting him over leaving his wife to get his hand looked at.
"My sis thinks I should've waited longer and that I shouldn't have told her about how it actually broke so she wouldn't feel guilty," he wrote.
But all he cares about is how his wife feels about the whole thing.
"My wife knows this and doesn't think I care but I kind of do because she's the love of my life and I would never hurt her intentionally," he wrote.
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