Rubén Castro posted a single photo: a baby’s tiny hand wrapped around his finger.
He wrote three words over the image: “Luar has arrived”. It was May 1, 2021, and this 27-year-old from Madrid, an early childhood educator known on social media as “Papá gestante”, had just given birth.
In the post, he apologized for his silence and for not replying to anyone while welcoming his child. He described it as the hardest and most longed-for thing he had ever experienced, and added that the adventure had only just begun.
To get there, he made some unusual decisions. He froze his eggs before starting hormone treatment so as not to put his fertility at risk. He opted against a mastectomy because he wanted to experience breastfeeding.
He became pregnant through artificial insemination after several attempts, and had to go before a medical ethics committee.
He also said that, after his documents had been changed, staff in gynecology treated him as a booking error. Amid paperwork and online attacks, his story became the documentary “Papá gestante”.