Chinese hospital allows men to experience pain of childbirth

A hospital in China is attempting to teach fathers-to-be about childbirth by enabling them to share in the pain of the process.

The innovative project, dubbed "pain experience camp" by a hospital in China's Shandong Province, works by strapping electrodes to the abdomens of the participants that simulate labour contractions which then increase in frequency and intensity.

Staff at the hospital said they hoped the event would encourage greater empathy.

All of the men who took part in the experiment professed a new-found respect for their partners afterwards, with many could not quite comprehend the level of pain they had endured.

Most of the men only lasted a few minutes before begging for their torment to end.