“Getting help for yourself is a way of helping your baby:” Fathers’ experiences of support for mental health and parenting in the perinatal period.

Abstract

The need for services targeting fathers in the perinatal period is increasingly apparent. To maximize engagement, such interventions need to be father focused, but men's experiences and needs around support have not been adequately examined. Therefore, the aims of this qualitative study were to explore men's experiences of seeking support for their mental health and parenting in the perinatal period, and identify their specific support needs during this time. Australian fathers (N ϭ 20) who were expecting or parenting an infant less than 2 years of age participated in individual semistructured face-to-face or telephone interviews. Thematic content analysis was used to analyze the data. Five broad themes were explored: experiences of support, support needs, barriers to support, facilitators to support, and timing of support. Several subthemes were identified within each category, illustrating a diverse range of issues that fathers experience across the perinatal period. The findings have implications for our understanding of fathers' help-seeking behaviors, their perinatal support needs and for the development of resources, services, and interventions aiming to engage fathers in maternity health services.

Recruiting fathers for parenting research using online advertising campaigns: Evidence from an Australian study

“…The findings of this study share parallels with fathers' reports of lack of engagement from “mainstream” child health and parenting services, which they perceive to be mother‐centric (Rominov et al, ). Parents, although a catch‐all term and potentially perceived as “gender‐inclusive” by service providers, appears to largely reach and engage mothers (Bayley et al, ).…”

“…Despite the appeals for services to be more inclusive of fathers, gender disparities in uptake of perinatal, early childhood, and parenting services persist-with fathers' participation generally low compared with mothers (Widarsson, Engström, Tydén, Lundberg, & Hammar, 2015). Social and structural barriers to fathers' participation in services include stigma around masculine norms, feelings of exclusion (i.e., mother-centric focus in services), and clashes with employment responsibilities (Giallo, Dunning, & Gent, 2017;Panter-Brick et al, 2014;Rominov, Giallo, Pilkington, & Whelan, 2018). Many of these same barriers are also constraints to fathers' participation in parenting research.…”

Intra‐couple similarity in dyadic coping and partners’ adjustment to the birth of a child

“…We hypothesize that the benefits underlying this complementarity involve situations in which men engage more in DC behaviors than women to respond to the partner's stress. This argument is in line with the support needs identified by male partners during the prenatal period (e.g., to acquire resources to support their spouses; Rominov, Giallo, Pilkington, & Whelan, ), and should be tested in future studies. On a related note, more than perceiving high similarity/complementarity, perceiving fairness in DC (i.e., one partner contributes more than the other but it is perceived as fair, perhaps because of societal expectations) or the type of DC strategy (e.g., positive or negative) could matter most, as suggested in previous studies with couples from the community (Iafrate, Bertoni, Margola, et al., ).…”

“…On a related note, more than perceiving high similarity/complementarity, perceiving fairness in DC (i.e., one partner contributes more than the other but it is perceived as fair, perhaps because of societal expectations) or the type of DC strategy (e.g., positive or negative) could matter most, as suggested in previous studies with couples from the community (Iafrate, Bertoni, Margola, et al., ). In contrast, the period after childbirth entails stressors that increasingly involve both partners (e.g., renegotiation of new responsibilities, household routines and social commitments, managing changes in the couple's relationship; Cowan & Cowan, ; Rominov et al., ; St John et al., ) and therefore it would imply more similarity or both partners contributing equally in DC directed at relieving couples’ burden.…”

Profiles of Depressive Symptoms and Anger in Men: Associations With Postpartum Family Functioning

“…In line with past research, our finding suggests that many fathers may feel alienated from effective support. In prior research fathers report not seeking support because of reasons including a belief that the focus should be on the mother and infant in the postnatal period (89), past negative experiences when asking for help (90,91), stigma attached to revealing emotions and vulnerability (92,93) and rigid adherence to masculine values of stoicism and self-reliance (90,94).…”