I have never heard of a punching bag therapy for women who have difficult birthing pains. Imagine a punching bag hanging over the bed. The expecting mother punches the bag when there is an excruciating pain. But I have heard women say they wanted to slap or lay hands on their husbands during sharp birthing pains as a sort of pain therapy.
One pain deserves another, right? Or is it—that one good turn deserves another?
Did you know that female seahorses need no pain therapy of any kind? Female seahorses are a rare breed that bears no birthing pain.
Female seahorses do not carry or give birth to seahorse babies. The females are not impregnated.
What? This is exactly what I exclaimed! And how great it is for the female seahorses!
Talk about female liberation!
Who carries the eggs and bears the fruit? The male seahorse does the honors!
What?
This is no malarkey!
The male seahorse becomes impregnated with the female’s eggs, fertilizes them, and gives birth within days or weeks.
What self-respecting male would have babies?
It’s fascinating, right?
God designated the male seahorse to give birth, not the female.
What about bloating, heartburn, nausea, vomiting, and other pregnancy symptoms? Well, they probably don’t experience these things. But who knows?
Seahorses are fish that look like toy horses with their horse-shaped heads and curved trunks. Some dictionaries describe them as mystical creatures that are half fish and half horse.
During the courtship, the male and female dance by entwining their tails, spinning, and swimming side-by-side. The courtship creates a monogamous bond that lasts during the breeding cycle.
Here’s the it-takes-two tango and magic for these beautiful creatures!
During mating, the female inserts her eggs into a tube or oviduct into the male’s brood pouch located at his abdomen. He moves and wiggles to help the eggs settle into place and fertilizes them. The male waits for gestation, or the eggs’ development, with his tail wrapped around seaweed or coral for nine days to six weeks. The male seahorse nourishes the eggs as they grow and the pregnancy progresses.
This stationary position seems a little like being on bed rest until the babies are born.
The male seahorse contorts or convulses when the eggs hatch and the tiny seahorses shoot out into the sea. No other protection or care is given to the newly born creatures. They are on their own.
Remarkable!
Male pregnancy allows the female to produce more eggs quicker, which quickens the cycle of impregnation, reproduction, and the little ones’ survival.
Here are a few other surprising things about seahorses.
From five to 1500 young babies can be born from one pregnancy.
The seahorse is a bony fish, indigestible, and has few predators except for crabs.
Seahorses digest food quickly and must eat constantly because they have no teeth or stomachs.
It appears the female seahorses got the best end of the whole baby-making deal!
In Genesis 3:16, God told Eve, the first woman, “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children.”
And so it is today, as God declared.
I could have used that punching bag or a stand-in while delivering my first child.
I told my husband he wasn’t close enough to the bed!
Be well.
Thanks for telling us the seahorse story. I had that the male birth the babies. Unknown were the number, no teeth or stomach and many other details. Beautiful story. Only God. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Meoshia! Thanks for your comments. It’s great you knew about such an amazing thing!