photo: SplashNews Although father-to-be Simon Cowell is now spending much of his time out and about with his glowingly pregnant girlfriend,Lauren Silverman, the cantankerous Brit clearly isn't looking to win any boyfriend-of-the-year awards, and has already announced his plans to stay clear of the delivery room when Silverman gives birth."I know this sounds awful,” Cowell told Us Weekly on Tuesday, "But it's like you don't want to go into the restaurant while they're making your dinner. I think there are certain things you shouldn't see and that is one of them. I'll be very close by, but no [I won't watch]."
Although Cowell’s response may sound like a throwback to the days when dads were off watching a game and smoking cigars while their wives were enduring hours of painful labor in order to bring a new human being into the world, he may have a point.
A 2012 study out of Oxford University found that some fathers have actually suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after witnessing the birth of a child. The large amounts of blood and the fragile condition of both the mother and baby can have negative effects on the father.
And some men have even admitted to losing interest in sex after watching their wives or girlfriends give birth.
In a piece for the Daily Mail last year, journalist Martin Daubley wrote that he went a year without having sex with his wife after witnessing her endure three days of labor and finally a C-section. “I truly believe couples would have more chance of normal intimacy after a birth if men saw less of the delivery," he shared. "The sight of a surgeon elbow-deep inside your wife’s abdomen isn’t something you forget in a hurry.”
In his blog the Daddy Doctrines, Chris Routly, a father based in Portland, Oregon, writes that although it may be difficult for some men to witness a birth, it shouldn’t be a reason to stay in the waiting room. “I can understand a man needing a while to get his head around the trauma of seeing what his wife goes through, especially if it’s a particularly complicated birth,” he writes. “[However] I think fear of this happening is a poor excuse to stay uninvolved.”
