Couvade syndrome, or pulling on the rope a little

OK, your first question is probably "What the heck is Couvade syndrome?" Well, good ole' reliable Wikipedia defines it as follows:

"a psychosomatic condition in which an individual close to an expectant mother, commonly her partner, experiences some of the same symptoms and behavior as the mother near the time of labor. These can include pains, aches, depression, food cravings and restrictions, insomnia, and exhaustion."

So am I experiencing any such "symptoms"? Well, not completely, but I have had this back ache that has been driving me crazy (and my back pain has been worse than Bryna's, believe it or not). And overall anxiety about the to-do list, the nursery, childbirth classes, health, cleaning, rightful increased share of housework, finances, friends, family, work, and health insurance has certainly increased the amount of stress that I'm experiencing as an expectant father. As Almost-A-Dad states in his "8 Reasons Why Pregnancy Makes Fathers Tired," stress works in a a tricky way. First, it makes your mind run like a Kenyan marathoner so it's not always easy to wind down at the end of the day. Second, stress causes a release of cortisol in your body that not only helps pack on a few pounds by messing with your blood sugars, over time it will make you feel depressed and anxious. But it's only a warm-up for the stress and anxiety of having a new baby, so I'll just convince myself that this is anthropologically/biologically-driven preparation for being a new father.

Your second question is "What does pulling on rope have anything to do with this?" Well, leave it to art to bring a new perspective to any issue in life. The quaint randomness of the blogosphere recently directed me toward the Huichol Indian tribe of Mexico and their ritual for ensuring that men share in the pains of childbirth. Apparently, the woman in labor would lay down in a hut, and her husband would sit in the rafters above her with a rope tied around his testicles ... and, when the woman had a contraction, she'd pull on the rope (all men reading this just cringed ... and all the women just snickered). Here's a work of art from the collection of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco that depicts this interesting custom:
Next time a man asks what labor pain feels like, I'd just tell him about this ... end of conversation.

OK, so I don't feel any better now -- esp. since I've now added a new anxiety to my long list (take another look at the image above in case you don't know what I'm talking about). But at least I could vent a bit about pre-natal father anxiety and stress -- of course, always only a small fraction of the stress and physical discomfort of the actual mother-to-be (I do realize that I cannot even try to compare).

33 days to go until the projected due date! [blood pressure increasing]