Julie Hambleton
Julie Hambleton
December 25, 2023 ·  2 min read

It may seem like an innocent birth announcement, but it has women raging

On August 8, 2018, UK soccer player Harry Kane announced the birth of his daughter on Twitter. His birth announcement, however, quickly solicited a hefty amount of backlash from women around the world. 

Professional Soccer Player’s Birth Announcement Sparks Female Rage

A birth announcement seems innocent enough. Likely, when soccer player Harry Kane posted his on Twitter in the summer of 2018, he was expecting a slew of congratulatory messages and not much else. While the over 3000 comments do include well-wishes for his little family, the majority are angry women. This is because, in it, he praised his wife Kate Goodland for giving birth without using any painkillers. (1)

Many women took this as a way of saying “you are lesser than if you used painkillers when you gave birth”.

What The Women Had To Say

The “rage” was kick-started by TV broadcaster Julia Hartley-Brewer. She responded by mentioning that she was happy for the couple, but that going through something as physically painful as giving birth with no pain killers isn’t something to be proud of.

“I’m delighted for @HKane & his family but why on earth should anyone be ‘proud’ of not having pain relief while giving birth? Utterly absurd! There’s a reason why women get pain relief during labour: because it bloody hurts.”

From there, many other people began chiming in, as well, agreeing with her.

“To be honest I thought that bit of the tweet was weird as well. It is nothing to be proud of to go through it without pain relief. You haven’t achieved anything more impressive than women who use it!” wrote one user.

“This. Pain relief exists for a reason, giving birth isn’t a competition or a time to act tough,” wrote another.

Others even joked around, suggesting that perhaps the next time they need dental work they should ask for it to be done without anesthesia.

Harry’s Response

The quick backlash warranted a quick response for the soccer player. He was quick to clarify his initial birth announcement.

“Let’s get one thing straight, any woman can give birth however they would like. I’m very proud of my fiancée for doing it the way she wanted and we both learnt a lot from hypnobirthing.”

Thousands supported him, recognizing that the original tweet was by no means meant to be patronizing towards other women. He was simply a happy new dad who was amazed and proud of what his partner had just done.

“Ppl need to pipe down, so what he is praising his partner for doing amazing in giving birth with no pain relief!! I’ve had 3 boys and all totally different births. 1 with only gas and air and 2 with pain relief. All births are different. Congratulations” wrote one commenter.

The rest all just congratulated him and also thanked him for going through this experience in-between seasons.

Keep Reading: Inspiring Photo Shows The Strength Of Moms When Giving Birth

Source

  1. Twitter