The study was carried out descriptively with the aim of determining the attitudes of the first-time fathers towards involvement in baby-care and the status of their actual involvement. It was realized in the surveillance service and healthy baby clinic of Ankara Zekai Tahir Burak Training and Research Hospital. The sample size was determined as 357. The fathers were interviewed in the maternity ward to determine their opinions about involvement in the birth and in the healthy baby clinic in 10 days after birth to find out the baby-care practices they were involved in. All of the fathers who acquired knowledge were involved in baby-care. 65.0% of the participants expressed their perception of self-sufficiency in baby-care and their involvement rate was higher than that of those who do not feel self-sufficient (p<0.05). 85.3% of the fathers having anxiety of difficulty in baby-care and 92.3% of those without any anxiety were involved in the process (p<0.05). It was found that the involvement rate is lower among the participants in the county town who live in a nuclear family and do not have someone to help with baby-care and whose fathers are at a low level of education (p<0.05). In accordance with the results obtained of the study, it was suggested that the fathers should be involved in the educational and counselling programmed on baby-care in the perinatal process and the participants in the group determined according to the research results should be given special attention.

SUMMARY OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the effect of telecounseling in reducing the anxiety and depression experienced by pregnant women. METHOD: This randomized control trial was conducted on 100 pregnant women (50 in each intervention and control group). The intervention group received telecounseling with regard to the mother and the fetus as needed between 08:00 h and 20:00 h for 6 weeks at home. The control group received only routine care. Anxiety and depression levels were evaluated at the beginning and end of the study using the Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale. RESULTS: Anxiety and depression levels were found to be lower in the intervention group than in the control group (p<0.001). In the control group, the anxiety score increased from 5.62 to 7.16, and the depression score increased from 4.92 to 5.76 without any intervention (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: This study shows that telecounseling may have an effect on reducing the level of anxiety and depression of pregnant women.

ÖZETBaba olma ve babalık kavramı gün geçtikçe değişmektedir. Geçmişte bebeklerine dokunmayan, insanların yanında bebeklerini sevmeyen sert bir otorite figürü olan babalar, günümüzde bebeğinin doğumuna katılan, onunla ten tene temas kuran, banyosunu yaptıran, oyunlar oynayıp zaman geçiren bireyler olmuşlardır. Özellikle kadınların çalışma hayatında daha çok yer alması nedeniyle bebek bakımına katılıp, anne ile birlikte ortak bir şekilde bebeklerini büyütebilmektedirler. Babaların bebek bakımına katılması çocuğun fiziksel, zihinsel olarak gelişimine olumlu katkılar sağlayabilmektedir. Bunların yapılabilmesi için hemşirelerin perinatal sürece babaları aktif olarak dahil etmesi, bilgi ve eğitim vermesi, doğum öncesi hazırlık sınıflarına yönlendirmesi, doğum sonu dönemde de ilk karşılaşma, temas ve bağlanmayı sağlıklı bir şekilde başlatabilmesi önemlidir.