When Males Give Birth

 

No, no, no, Sir, that's impossible, men can't give birth, and it's no use trying to do so. Not even the well-known male "womb envy" gives you any rights to claim that ability as a right!

A precarious situation

However, some males of certain species, which are not human, do give birth. That goes for e.g. the fish family Syngnathidae which contains c. 300 different species. The best known one of these is the seahorse, but there are more.

"Caught me something ...."

As some of these species don't even have what's called a "brood pouch". When that's the case, the female just lays her eggs on their tail or trunk. If, on the other hand, they possess a "brood pouch" then that will be where she lays them and that's where her "maternal duties" end, and the paternal ones of the male start. 

It goes without saying, but still, I'll say it: This system is part of Nature and can't be explained away by religious fanatics claiming that it's not "Halal" or something like that.

However, it's in religion we do find some accounts of men giving birth, but they go far back in time to ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Also, there are some legends of a king getting pregnant in Hindu religious texts.

Dionysus 

One well-known instance of a male god giving birth is when Zeus had baby Dionysus sewn into him and bore him from one of his thighs. The original mother of the baby was Semele who was killed by the jealous wife of Zeus, namely Hera, and he had to do something to save the poor, motherless fetus. 

Athene

Zeus also turned into the "mother" of another deity: Athene. Her natural mother was Metis, the first wife of Zeus, but he was advised to do "something" about this very potent and thus threatening offspring of his, so he swallowed up her pregnant mother, Metis, and gave birth himself. And, of course, that event happened in a very spectacular manner: Athene sprang from his forehead, fully armed!!!

There has been some attempts in e.g. Japan to find ways to make male animals as well as men get pregnant and bear children, but up till now in vain. One of the methods was uterus transplantations.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277539511000252

 

https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/gods-and-goddesses-greek-and-roman-pantheon

 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Semele

 

Wikipedia