Fathers' Presence During Birth of their Infants and Paternal Involvement

Abstract

100 fathers were asked about their attitude to and their actual participation in infant care one year after their firstborn child was delivered. Subsequently, the fathers were divided into four groups: those who wanted to be present during birth of their child and those who did not want to be present in the first place ("attitude"). Each group was then divided on the basis of whether they actually were present or not (table 1). Comparisons were made between the four groups in terms of differences in answering a self-developed questionnaire. It was shown that attitude brought about more differences than did presence (table 2). Although the study has been exploratory in nature, results did support the following hypothesis: the differences obtained reflect an effect of a long-term orientation towards the child, and not a sudden effect caused by the presence of the fathers in the delivery room.