China Hospital Helps Guys Feel Pain of Childbirth

A hospital in China is giving men a unique way to share the experience of childbirth—specifically, the pain of childbirth—with women. Reuters reports that Aima maternity hospital offers sessions in which guys can have pads attached to their abdomen that deliver electric shocks in gradually increasing intensity over five minutes. In other words, the men sign up to get "tortured," writes Natalie Thomas.

"The pain the men experience might not match what women endure, sometimes for hours, during childbirth, but it at least offers a taste," observes a post at Quartz. A nurse at the hospital in Shandong province explains that the idea is to make fathers-to-be a little more understanding of what the women in their life have to go through. Which is to say, "It felt like my heart and lungs were being ripped apart," says one Chinese participant. (More strange stuff stories.)