A pregnant woman (stock image); a man with an upset woman (stock image).Photo:Getty
Getty
A man is questioning whether he made the right decision for himself and his wife after he chose to sleep at home several days following her C-section.
In a recent post onReddit’s Am I the A——? forum, a man in the U.K. detailed the circumstances surrounding the birth of his and his wife’s second child — and what led him to head home for the night after her surgery.
“My wife was admitted to the hospital for an induction of our second child. She had a rough time during her first pregnancy, as it was during lockdown,” he began the lengthy post. “I was not allowed to stay [in the hospital] during that time, so she asked that I stay each night with her during this pregnancy. She gets quite anxious and wanted me there for support during the night.”
Over the next several days, the couple continued with their schedule as usual, with the man sleeping on the hospital couch as his wife recovered. Their problem first emerged when doctors noticed that their newborn had a health issue, and they had to be moved to a new ward of the hospital — one without couches or beds for partners to nap on.
According to the Reddit user, he has experienced lower back pain for some time, and had been carrying a cushion around with him so that he can sit more comfortably.
“It doesn’t do much, but it means I can sit in the chairs for a bit rather than needing to lie down,” he explained. “I told my wife I couldn’t stay as I wouldn’t be able to sit in the chair all night with no sleep. She expected me to stay the night and continue to help her out during the day.”
Although he wrote that he felt “really bad about it,” he knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep sitting upright on the cushion all night and didn’t want to risk hurting his back even more.
“Then I’d be of no use the next day without sleep and with back pain,” he reasoned. “I set everything up for my wife to make it easier for her during the night. I spoke to the staff and told them how anxious she is and that she’d need extra help and told my wife to ask for help when she needed it. I left at 12 a.m. and came back when the doors opened next morning. I’ve been taking over during the day and letting her rest when she wants to.”
“My argument is that I can’t physically stay awake all night and all day,” the user finished, asking the Reddit community to weigh in on whether he was an “a——” for going home for the night.
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A sleeping newborn (stock image).Getty
“That and with the hormones, I’m not sure ‘I need a break because my back hurts’ is something I could handle hearing when I don’t get a break and had just been cut open after 9 months of pregnancy,” they added.
Another commenter said they understood the man’s reasoning for making sure he got sleep.
“[Not the a——], there’s a reason why on planes they instruct you to put on your oxygen mask first and then help your child,” they wrote.
source: people.com
