Labor Pains (The Simpsons)

Elisabeth Moss as Gretchen

"Labor Pains" is the fifth episode of the 25th season of the American animated sitcom The Simpsons, and the 535th episode of the series. It originally aired on the Fox network in the United States on November 17, 2013. It was written by Don Payne and Mitchell H. Glazer and directed by Matthew Faughnan.

In the episode, after a night of playing poker with Moe, Lenny, and Carl, Homer finds himself in an elevator with a young mother named Gretchen, who is in labor and needs someone to help her keep calm. Meanwhile, Lisa helps the local football cheerleading team unionize and negotiate for better wages and working conditions.

While playing poker one night with Moe, Barney, Lenny and Carl, Homer has a run of good luck and decides to leave the game with his winnings. A pregnant woman, Gretchen, enters the elevator with him to ride down to street level, but it gets stuck between floors and she goes into labor. Based on what he can recall of the childbirth classes he took with Marge, Homer manages to deliver the baby himself, a healthy son. Later, after another poker night, Homer comes across Gretchen again and learns that she named her child after him. He begins to spend time with her, bringing baby items that he and Marge never used for their children, instead of going to the poker game.

Marge, thinking that Homer has sneaked out of work in favor of the game, discovers that he is in Gretchen's apartment and thinks at first that he is being unfaithful to her. However, she eventually learns the whole truth, and Homer takes his children and Homer Jr. to the zoo. In a fit of anger, Homer Jr. pushes Maggie's stroller toward a prairie dog exhibit, but she manages to stop herself before she can roll into it. Marge forbids Homer to see Gretchen ever again, and he takes Homer Jr. back to the apartment, where he returns the baby to Gretchen and her husband - recently returned from a military deployment overseas. A dejected Homer returns home, where Maggie quickly forgives him for not paying attention to her, and Homer Jr. surprises his father with his ability (learned from Homer) to open and pour a beer.