Engaging Dads

Building father-inclusive approaches: Are you sitting comfortably? Making space for dads in maternity wards, to improve service quality and infant bonding. Pt 2

Redesigning perinatal services to be father-inclusive can be a major task: one that most NHS commissioning bodies have yet to tackle.
In Nottingham, consultant midwife Lisa Common has been leading a project to provide reclining chairs, and information packs, for fathers and other partners in maternity wards across the city.
In this second episode about the project, we hear more about the teething problems and practicalities of allowing overnight stays on the maternity wards.
Connect with Lisa on Twitter.
 

Building father-inclusive approaches: Are you sitting comfortably? Making space for dads in maternity wards, to improve service quality and infant bonding. Pt 1

Redesigning perinatal services to be father-inclusive can be a major task: one that most NHS commissioning bodies have yet to tackle.
In Nottingham, consultant midwife Lisa Common has been leading a project to provide reclining chairs, and information packs, for fathers and other partners in maternity wards across the city.
In this, the first of two episodes about Lisa’s work, we hear how she’s gone about changing the way maternity services welcome dads into the physical space of maternity services – and the impact this has started to have on families’ experiences, and on how midwives support parent-infant bonding.
Connect with Lisa on Twitter.

Building father-inclusive approaches: Dad Matters – a commissioned service to support fathers’ bonding and early attachment. Pt 2

Redesigning perinatal services to be father-inclusive can be a major task: one that most NHS systems have yet to tackle.
In Greater Manchester, Dad Matters - a Home Start project - has emerged as a commissioned service that focuses on supporting fathers’ bonding and early attachment with their babies.
In the second of two episodes looking in-depth at the Dads Matter model, we chat more about what Kieran sees as the success factors behind the service – and about the challenges of developing high quality services for dads, within a system that generally positions fathers as outsiders.
Visit the Dad Matters website.

Building father-inclusive approaches: Dad Matters - a commissioned service to support fathers’ bonding and early attachment. Pt 1

Redesigning perinatal services to be father-inclusive can be a major task: one that most NHS systems have yet to tackle.
In Greater Manchester, Dad Matters - a Home Start project - has emerged as a commissioned service that focuses on supporting fathers’ bonding and early attachment with their babies.
In this episode – the first of two with Dad Matters’ operations manager Kieran Anders, we hear about how Dad Matters works, how it fits into the perinatal pathway, including in maternity services - and how the project has been commissioned, delivered and evaluated.
Visit the Dad Matters website.

Dads Shut Out: Could the NHS ‘build back’ better father-support by learning the lessons of the pandemic?

The Covid-19 restrictions that prevented fathers and other partners accompanying women to antenatal appointments, scans, parts of labour – and in some cases childbirth - and either excluded or severely restricted their access to, postnatal wards – cast a long shadow over NHS maternity services.
We’ve interviewed a range of people involved in studying and campaigning around the restrictions, to build up a picture of how the restrictions impacted on families, and the learning we can take from the experience.
This episode is a conversation between Kathy Jones, the Fatherhood Institute’s head of strategy and joint CEO, and Maria Booker, programmes manager at Birthrights.
Kathy and Maria worked together during the pandemic, as part of the But Not Maternity Alliance – which, alongside Pregnant Then Screwed and other organisations and individuals – did the vital work of keeping on top of what was happening with maternity restrictions around the country, during the various stages of the pandemic.
Here they share their thoughts on how restrictions might have been handled differently, and how a focus on high quality support for fathers and partners should be baked in to maternity services moving forward.
Visit the Birthrights website.
 
 

The secrets of midwife-father communication during labour and the birth

Dr Debbie Garrod is a midwife and researcher from Manchester, whose PhD used ethnographic techniques to explore how midwives and fathers communicate during labour and birth.
Debbie used great skill and attention to detail to shed light on these life-changing encounters, creating a piece of research that is moving, profound and packed with great insights.
In this podcast she chats about some of her key findings, and makes some recommendations for a shift in midwifery practice.
Download Debbie's PhD thesis here.

Ask and keep asking: the campaign for better paternal perinatal mental health support

This podcast features a group of fathers talking about maternity services – from their own experience, and those of other dads they know and have worked with.
The three men in the room – Mark Williams (Fathers Reaching Out), Scott Mair (PMH Support) and Rob Osman (Dads in Mind) – are all in some way involved in work to support men having difficult journeys into and through early fatherhood. So you’ll hear them talking about sometimes quite dark experiences – anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress from difficult births, and even suicide.
The vast majority of men won’t experience any of these problems. But some do, and what happens to ALL men becoming fathers – especially for the first time – is a profound physical and emotional journey. Sometimes their support needs – and those of their partners – can be substantial.
Visit Mark's website, Fathers Reaching Out
Connect with Scott Mair on Instagram
Visit the Dads in Mind website

Stoic and supportive: understanding men’s journeys into fatherhood

Drs Paul Hodkinson and Ranjana Das from the Sociology Department at Surrey University conducted in-depth interviews with 15 fathers, all living with the mother during the perinatal period. The men told them all about their journeys into fatherhood, the challenges they faced, and the role of digital communication at different stages of their experience.
Paul and Ranjana published a book about their research, called New Fathers, Mental Health and Digital Communication, in 2021.
One of the dads, John, summed things up thus: “Nobody talks about you as a dad, what will it be like, what will the new world look like … it’s not so much about the mechanics of looking after a baby, that’s relatively easy to do, feed a bottle, change a nappy … it’s the way you look after yourself.”
In this episode, Ranjana and Paul talk us through their findings about how men cope with becoming fathers, about their use digital communication, and about the role services could play in providing better support.
Check out the book here.

What dads need and want in perinatal systems

Jeszemma Howl is head of training at the Fatherhood Institute, and has many years’ experience of grassroots work with dads, and of training and supporting midwives, health visitors and a multitude of other practitioners to work in father-inclusive ways.
She also undertook a Winston Churchill travelling fellowship, to explore father-inclusive approaches to breastfeeding support from around the world.
In this episode, Jeszemma shares her wisdom about how best to support dads – and, towards the end of the podcast, chooses the one thing she’d change if she could wave a magic wand over NHS maternity services.
Find out more about Fatherhood Institute training here.
Read Jeszemma's breastfeeding report here.

The Life of Dad: a whistle-stop tour of human fatherhood

Dr Anna Machin is a world-renowned evolutionary anthropologist, whose pioneering work explores the science and anthropology of fatherhood.
Her book The Life of Dad (Simon & Schuster, June 2018) draws on her decade of research on fathering, at the University of Oxford. 
We sat down with Anna to find out about the origins of modern dads, the changes that happen in men’s brains when they become fathers - and why we need a huge cultural shift to improve the support they receive.
Visit Anna's website.