For Men
How Fathers, Family, Friends Can Help
The increasing trend in today's society is the the number fathers who are the primary caregivers. The study of motherhood and the changes in the brain have been closely studied, however this rise in the number of father caregivers prompted researchers to study how the male brain responds and changes in response to fatherhood. This recent study highlights that fathers' brains show similar brain activity to moms when they care for their children.
University of Hertfordshire researches the effectiveness of "Click" a series of antenatal classes designed to target strong parent-infant bonds. The classes achieve this by strengthening mindfulness of the infant's meotional needs. Dr. Kondel-Laws conducted research on fifty pregnant mothers, with half attending regular antenatal classes and the other half took "Click" antenatal classes. The mothers who attended Click had an increased ability to be mindful of their infants needs, felt less hostile and enjoyed their babies more.
Children of women who are diagnosed with an alcohol disorder during pregnancy or within a year after giving birth have a three-fold higher risk of dying from SIDS -- sudden infant death syndrome.
This will not be news to many of us in the field, but a new research article by Altarum Institute published in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, incidated that women participating in WIC are more than 65% more likely to experience postpartum depressive symptoms in the months after childbirth compared to higher-income mothers.
Teenage girls at high risk for pregnancy were more likely to use condoms and birth control pills after taking part in a prevention program specifically designed for them.