It’s a common mistake to think that it’s just the woman who suffers, stresses and slurps down the milk shakes during a pregnancy. Dads feel the pain and share in the weight gain of their wives’ pregnancies, says Harlan Cohen, advice columnist and author of Dad’s Pregnant Too!
What was your motivation for writing this book?
I wrote another book, The Naked Roommate, to help college students get comfortable with college life because I thought college was 90 percent amazing and 10 percent difficult. You can apply that to pregnancy, too. Having a child is an amazing experience. Nothing compares to the joyous sensory explosion of being a parent. It’s also really hard and difficult.
What’s unique about Dad’s Pregnant Too! as a pregnancy advice book?
You will never find stories from women relating to their relationship with their partner and what they did right and wrong and what you as an expectant father can learn from mistakes of others. I heard from men who shared stories they didn’t share with one another. Things guys don’t talk to other guys about.
What are your top tips for expectant couples?
Give your partner permission to be wrong even though you’re right. It’s about supporting your partner emotionally and about mutual respect.
As a parent of two living in Chicago, what do you like best about the city? What’s the worst?
The best thing is that you have every choice to make your decisions. …You can have a home birth or a hospital birth in a leading facility. You can pick and choose where to go. Not everyone has these options. The worst is the storage. When you don’t have space and you’re tripping over diapers, shoes, the Pack and Play. I’ve become the best cleaner in the world.
