What can a man tell a woman about being pregnant?

It’s okay to admit it. That’s what you might have been thinking.

Obviously, I have never, as Lilly Tomlin put it so eloquently, “pulled my lower lip over my head.” I have not had my nipples get so sensitive I wanted to cry. Nor has my skin stretched so tightly around my belly that I feel like a ripe cantaloupe. I’ve also never been forced to shuffle around like a penguin.

What I have done, though, is suffer from back pain. I currently have disc herniation over the lumbar spine. I won’t bore you with my medical history, just suffice it to say that I have experienced debilitating back pain first hand.

And I know neck and back pain from a clinical perspective. I have been treating pregnant women since some of my current pregnant patients were still in grade school.

I have also treated and coached my wife through the births of our four children.

Wow, a coach . . .

I sense some skepticism out there. Hey, don’t knock my position as a coach. It takes a different skill set to perform than it does to coach. The best players are very rarely the best coaches. The fact that I can’t give birth is a terrific qualification for being a coach. It’s a historical reality. Look it up.

I’m a sports fan. In fact, I’m the chiropractor on the sports medicine staff of both our local professional hockey team and our indoor football team. One thing I know about coaching is that the superstar coaches are usually guys who never stood out on the highest level as competitors. Great coaches are generally the players who spent their careers sitting on the bench or, at best, were classified as role players. Very few athletes who became household names have ever excelled as coaches.

For example:

Vince Lombardi, a pro football coaching icon, played college football but was never a player on a professional team.

Baseball Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda was a star minor league pitcher (the Montreal Royals of the International League), but never established himself as a major league caliber player.