{"id":2138,"date":"2021-05-08T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/?p=2138"},"modified":"2024-04-25T11:34:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T18:34:58","slug":"what-do-new-fathers-need-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/what-do-new-fathers-need-to-know\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do New Fathers Need to Know?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On a long plane flight recently, I started talking with the man next to me. He and his wife were expecting their first baby \u2013 due in just 3 months \u2013 and he was excited to get home to her. She was enjoying pregnancy and preparing for life with a baby.<\/p>\n<p>He turned to me after describing all this and said earnestly:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat do I need to know? Sometimes I feel like all the advice we hear and read is targeted at her. What does a new\u00a0father\u00a0need to know?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a good question. There\u2019s so much information for expectant mothers and parents but he was vocalizing something a bit different. What specifically does a dad need to know about having a baby?<\/p>\n<p>New fathers feel all the thrill of new parenthood and all the worry that comes along with it. They can also at times feel unsure of their role. His question was a natural one, and yet the answer is challenging. Here are some thoughts I left him with.<\/p>\n<p><b>Enjoy bonding with your new baby.<\/b> Your connection to them is invaluable and you can strengthen it by spending as much time at home in the beginning as possible.<\/p>\n<p><b>Hold your baby often.<\/b> Time spent skin-to-skin with you allows your baby to smell, feel, and hear you \u2013 it lets them get to know you.<\/p>\n<p><b>Be involved in your baby\u2019s care<\/b>. Sometimes it can feel like your partner \u2013 who carried the baby, gave birth, and is often breastfeeding \u2013 is\u00a0thebaby expert. Dads can start to feel a little inadequate!<\/p>\n<p>But there are many things you can do to get more involved, such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Carry your baby in your arms or in a front carrier often. The closeness helps both of you bond, while the rocking motion soothes your baby.<\/li>\n<li>Give baths to, take walks with, and read and sing to your little one.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Support \u201ctummy time\u201d, which is incredibly important for your baby \u2013 but sometimes they don\u2019t love it. You can help by lying on the floor with your baby and talking them through tummy time!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Help your partner with daily tasks. <\/b>The \u201cfourth trimester\u201d is the time right after birth. It\u2019s when there\u2019s incredible growth of the baby and the mother adjusts to life after delivery as emotions and hormones swing wildly. To help her get through it, you can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Remind her often how wonderful you think she is! Your encouragement and understanding will go a long way.<\/li>\n<li>Cook, clean, wash \u2013 make it generally okay for her to focus on healing herself and feeding the baby.<\/li>\n<li>Share the feeding responsibility, if your partner isn\u2019t breastfeeding. You\u2019ll come to love the quiet times holding, feeding, and getting to know your baby.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Help your partner feel more comfortable when she\u2019s breastfeeding.If your partner is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/breastfeeding-a-newborn-tips-for-the-first-few-days\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">breastfeeding<\/a>, you don\u2019t need to be left out! You can do lots to help the breastfeeding relationship start off well. Here are some ideas:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bring her pillows to get the baby in the right position for nursing.<\/li>\n<li>Bring water \u2013 lots of it. Nursing makes you so thirsty and drinking lots of water helps her make more milk for your baby!<\/li>\n<li>Help her relax. Being relaxed can help her milk supply \u2013 and you probably know just the things that help your partner relax the most!<\/li>\n<li>Let mom stay in bed while you get the baby for feeds.<\/li>\n<li>Change the baby\u2019s diaper afterward.<\/li>\n<li>Stay nearby to talk and listen. At first, breastfeeding can be hard \u2013 she may need to talk about how things are going. After it gets easier, she\u2019ll still feel it\u2019s nice to have someone to talk with.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>After 3-4 weeks, it\u2019s okay to introduce a bottle of pumped breastmilk so that you can share in the feeding.<\/p>\n<p>I asked a group of fathers if I was missing any advice. Almost universally they said being a father is the best thing that ever happened to them!<\/p>\n<p>One dad\u2019s words sums it all up:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s nothing better than being a parent. Make your kids a priority. Shower them with love. Enjoy the time: it will be crazy, busy, hectic, and stressful. But soon it will be over and you\u2019ll miss when it was crazy, busy, hectic, and stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations, you\u2019re a father!<\/p>\n<p>Resources for fathers<br \/>\nMy Doctor Online:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/mydoctor.kaiserpermanente.org\/ncal\/pregnancy\/#\/weekly-content\/trimester\/3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Your Newborn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>American Academy of Pediatrics:<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthychildren.org\/English\/ages-stages\/prenatal\/delivery-beyond\/Pages\/Dads-Can-Get-Postpartum-Depression-Too.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dads Can Get Depression During and After Pregnancy, Too<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On a long plane flight recently, I started talking with the man next to me. He and his wife were expecting their first baby \u2013 due in just 3 months \u2013 and he was excited to get home to her. She was enjoying pregnancy and preparing for life with a baby.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nHe turned to me after describing all this and said earnestly:\u00a0\u201cWhat do I need to know?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[667],"tags":[275,451,450,373,372,425,374,602,426,61],"class_list":["post-2138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newborn-care","tag-breastfeeding","tag-calming-a-crying-baby","tag-crying-baby","tag-dads","tag-fathers","tag-infant-crying","tag-new-baby","tag-newborn","tag-newborn-crying","tag-parenting","ages-baby","ages-prenatal"],"metadata":{"_edit_lock":["1714069978:8"],"_edit_last":["8"],"slide_template":["default"],"video_format_choose":["youtube"],"_custom_body_class":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_content_score":["60"],"qode_animate-page-title":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-text":["no"],"qode_show-page-title-image":["no"],"qode_show-sidebar":["default"],"qode_hide-featured-image":["no"],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":[""],"_yoast_wpseo_primary_ages":["287"],"_thumbnail_id":["2147"],"wpfp_favorites":["25"],"ase_chapter_enable_timeline":["off"],"_yoast_wpseo_estimated-reading-time-minutes":["4"],"_yoast_indexnow_last_ping":["1714070099"],"ase_map_component_start_point":["a:2:{s:3:\"lat\";d:29.76;s:3:\"lng\";d:-95.38;}"],"ase_mapbox_style":["openstreet"],"_wpb_vc_js_status":["false"],"_yoast_wpseo_focuskeywords":["[]"],"_yoast_wpseo_keywordsynonyms":["[\"\"]"],"_yoast_wpseo_wordproof_timestamp":[""]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2138"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2151,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2138\/revisions\/2151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kpthrivingfamilies.org\/pediatricsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}