The couple discussed their birth plans early on (Picture: Getty Images)

A nervous father-to-be has said he won’t cut his baby’s umbilical cord, despite dealing with “blood and guts” every day as a first responder.

The man and his wife discussed their birth plans early in her pregnancy and he explained that he did not want to cut the umbilical cord.

“I know I am and I’m acting weird, but I’m really squeamish when it comes to cutting into human flesh,” he wrote in a post on Reddit.

“It seems like a medical procedure and it makes me REALLY uncomfortable.”

Perhaps confusingly, he added that he was a “first responder” – someone who is usually the first on the scene of an accident, including paramedics, police and firefighters.

“I’m a first responder, so I’ve seen every type of blood you can imagine. Blood, guts, screams, etc. I’m used to these things,” he added.

“Squeamishness has everything to do with cutting.”

While his wife initially accepted his decision, she now raised the issue again.

“Now that the big day has arrived, my wife has insisted again,” he wrote. “I told her I wanted to be involved in any way I could, including picking up the baby and handing him (we don’t know the gender) to his new mother.

“I feel like my wife has a Hollywood idea of ​​childbirth, including cutting the umbilical cord.” She also wants me to shower with her during labor and give her back massages, which she also saw on a Netflix show.

“I asked why the umbilical cord was so important to her, but she couldn’t tell me.”

The responses were largely sympathetic to the father-to-be, with one person simply saying: “Why make life more unpleasant than it has to be?”

Other mothers stepped in and said their partners hadn’t cut the umbilical cord – and that was fine with them.

“My husband was also squeamish and didn’t cut the umbilical cord,” one woman wrote. “I still felt like he was advocating for me, protecting me, encouraging me every step of the way and generally being an active partner.”

Another said: “My husband has never cut our two boys’ umbilical cords and I don’t care.”

A former midwife also intervened and tried to calm the poster’s nerves by describing the umbilical cord as “more like rubber tubes” than human flesh.

“The delivery person pinches the umbilical cord in two places and when you cut between them, the umbilical cord does not come particularly close to the baby,” they wrote.

Others added that it might be best to leave the topic alone.

‘I wouldn’t argue with your (heavily pregnant!) wife about this if it wasn’t necessary.’ You know her wishes, she knows yours. There is no need to talk about it.”