Giving Birth with Confidence, Safe & Healthy Birth, The Pregnancy Experience
Our Father's Day Gift to Dads-to-Be & New Dads
Cara Terreri
Despite what you see in movies, TV, and online, dads and fathers are more than capable of caring for their babies in safe, healthy, and beneficial ways. The information and evidence we now know about fatherly care might surprise and delight you. I imagine some of you knew it all along. This Father's Day, our gift to parents everywhere are these handful of confidence-boosting facts about dads and babies.
>Research shows that fathers experience hormonal changes during pregnancy and after birth in order to prime them for fatherhood -- when it comes to adjusting to being a new parent, biology is on your side!
>Fathers have innate nurturing instincts, which means they are just as capable of responding to baby's needs and cues.
>Fathers often connect with their babies in different ways and not only is that perfectly fine, it's good for both the father and the baby. Fathers have been shown to experience less stress when they spend time with their babies.
>Bonding often is not immediate and in fact, it's perfectly normal for bonding to take place over time. Take care of baby's basic needs -- the bonding will come.
>New fathers can develop paternal postpartum depression (paternal PPD), generally occurring during 3-6 months after birth. If you have any of these symptoms, talk to your doctor about referring you to a mental health professional ASAP. Depression is treatable.
>Babies love time with you face-to-face and skin-to-skin, but don't stress -- time with baby while taking care of routine needs is also great for bonding and interaction! Brief, repeated interactions with your baby lay the foundation for a lifetime relationship.
>One of the best, tried-and-true ways to boost confidence and find support as a new dad is spending time socially with other dads. It's that easy.
>If you missed early bonding moments with your baby due to an absence, it's ok. You can re-establish bonding with your baby through brief, repeated interactions. It may take time, but efforts will pay off.