Baby blues fathers with childbed depressions

Ten percent of fathers overtake the so-called baby blues

26.04.2012

Many mothers experience the so-called baby blues in the first weeks after the birth of their child, which can develop into a serious postpartum depression. But it is not only mothers who suffer from this phenomenon, but also fathers often have to deal with significant mental health problems after the birth of their children.

Australian researchers from the Parenting Research Center in Melbourne have found in a comprehensive study that fathers suffer from mental health problems similar to mothers after the birth of their child. Nearly ten percent of men thus overtake the baby blues in the first year after the birth of their offspring. The study results suggest that routine checks on the well-being of the fathers and possibly appropriate psychological interventions should take place in the post-natal period, write Jan M. Nicholson and colleagues from the Parenting Research Center in the journal "Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology".

Ten percent of fathers with baby blues
In their study, the Australian researchers had studied the psychological condition of 3,471 men whose children were up to the age of five and compared them with the psyche of the "general male adult population". To allow a comparison, the "Data on the prevalence of mental health problems in the Australian adult male population from the National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing" was consulted. The scientists noted that "among young fathers, the rate of those who describe such problems is 40 percent higher than among men in general." Overall, just under ten of the men in the first 12 months after birth of the offspring suffer from significant mental health problems. At worst, postnatal depression may persist "over the early childhood period," write Jan M. Nicholson and colleagues. With 9.7 percent more men are affected after the birth of their child from stress symptoms than women (9.4 percent), the scientists report. "We were surprised that the problems with fathers are as common as with mothers," said Jan M. Nicholson.

Fathers need psychological support
According to the researchers, the cause of the mental health problems, for example, can be the enormous responsibility and the growing pressure. Sleep deprivation may also play a role at night, but other factors, Nicholson and colleagues say, have a significant impact here, as mental health problems also occur when fathers do not live together with their children. Overall, the symptoms are similar to the postpartum depression of mothers, with those affected often feel that their (own) claims do not meet. The "mental problems with fathers can be persistent and inexorable," according to the Australian researchers. According to the scientists, given the current study results, a routine control of the well-being of fathers in the postnatal period should be considered. The affected fathers need support and in case of doubt they have to intervene therapeutically, write Nicholson and colleagues in their article. (Fp)

Read about:
No restraint during pregnancy
Start slowly with sports after birth
Terminations in pregnant women with justification