From the producers of “Don’t Tell the Bride,” the hit reality show where adorably incompetent men take responsibility for planning their own weddings without their wives-to-be, comes the brand new concept: “Don’t Tell the Mother.”
This show follows first-time dads as they control every detail of their expectant partner’s birth plan, leaving everything a surprise until the big day.
Dave, a brick-layer with a tribal tattoo and too much confidence, planned a droll delivery for his partner Ellie by replacing all the midwives with Elvis impersonators and arranging for her to deliver on the pitch of his beloved Wembley stadium as he thought “it would be a laugh.”
28-year-old Michael might not know what an epidural is, but he does know the meaning of Epicurean—ok he doesn’t, but that didn’t stop him from pulling out all the stops and planning an Oktoberfest-themed birthing plan, glutted with tankards of Stella so he and his friends could wet the baby’s head before wife Char was 3cm dilated. As the drink and the amniotic fluid flowed, Micheal welcomed his son into the world to the serenading of a Bavarian Oompah band while Char’s perineum was sutured. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.
Despite viewing this japery as one final, light-hearted hurrah before the commitments of fatherhood, the mothers often fail to see the funny side. “When he insisted on cutting the umbilical cord with a replica of the Narsil sword from the Fellowship of the Ring, that’s where I drew the line,” 26-year-old Emily confesses, whose film-buff husband’s commitment to a Lord of the Rings themed delivery landed her and her infant daughter in the ICU. “He hired a Gandalf to be my doula. He kept referring to my crowning baby’s head as the Eye of Sauron and bellowing “You shall not pass!!” at any medical personnel who were trying to assist with the cord prolapse. And I’m not naming her Galadriel for f*cks sake.”
“People keep congratulating me on having my first baby,” Jane smiles, smearing an adult nappy in aloe vera and witch-hazel as her newborn howls at her breast. Husband Derek is rewinding after the stress of planning the big day. “But it’s not true; I’ve been a mother ever since I got married.”
Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash