Doctor and TV presenter Andrew Rochford wanted to settle the age-old argument about who's tougher, men or women. And what better way to do it than to hook himself up to a muscle stimulator and experience the pain of labour?

The 29-year-old presenter of 'What's Good For You' took the unusual step so he could understand what his wife Jaime endured when she gave birth to their children Archie, now two, and twins Georgia and Ava, 10 months. Here's Andrew's account of one of the longest days of his life:

What it's like for a girl

Any woman who's gone through childbirth will tell you it's a marathon of pain. I can tell all men, experiencing contractions in labour is like torture. It's relentless, and it's the most painful thing I've ever experienced.

To see who has the higher pain threshold, men or women, we worked out how to simulate contractions in a man. In labour, there are muscle contractions that are mostly uterus-related, and there's an element of abdominal muscle contraction. Obviously men don't have a uterus, so we got a muscle stimulator, which sent electric impulses into my abdominal muscles, contracting or cramping them.

For first pregnancies, the average labour is 12 hours, so I was determined to give it a good go. I was about two hours in and contractions were 60 seconds long and 60 seconds apart. I was exhausted and at the point where I'd fear the next contraction. The pain, I'd expected; the exhaustion was worse than I could've imagined.

Messing with the mind

I went a bit mad at one stage because I was so exhausted. I felt disorientated and the pain through my abdominals was incredible. It's like when you have a cramp that won't go away. It felt like my muscle fibres were tearing apart and there were times when I would've given anything for it to stop.

I reached a point where I was in so much agony I didn't care about the outcome. I just wanted it to end. I was even going through contractions on all fours at one point, which was embarrassing to say the least.

I had a photo of Jaime that was taken an hour before she'd given birth and at one point I was blubbering over this photo. I was ready to throw in the towel, but then I thought, ‘I can't, Jaime's gone through so much worse.'

Our first-born Archie came quick but he was a monster, weighing 4.6kg. Jaime isn't very big and from beginning to delivery it was six hours. With the girls being twins, they came early and were delivered by caesarean.

During all this I was considering ways to lower the pain, and we looked at gases and different medications. When those things didn't work, the only thing left was an epidural - and that's when I wussed out!

When it was over

I didn't last as long as Jaime and nowhere near the average labour. When I got home, I needed help to stand up. It took four days before I could sit properly. Sadly, this hasn't made me do more housework, but I do have more compassion for my wife and my mum.

Men, I think when it comes to going through life's most arduous experience, you should be happy to leave it up to the women.

And I think for my next pregnancy I'll have a caesarean with an epidural, general anaesthetic - the whole lot! 

As told to Adrian Motte. Tune in to 'What's Good For You' on TVNZ 6 at 7pm on Thursdays.

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