Life after a baby is a 360-degree change for both the mother & the father. While postpartum changes for the mother are widely discussed, the same for fathers are less focussed upon.
New mothers navigate through their postpartum journey at various levels- dealing with post-birth healing, hormonal swings, the intricacies of feeding, understand the newborns need, adapting to physical body changes post-birth, postpartum blues, erratic sleep routines, learning to balance between responsibilities and motherhood.
The list is endless. More often than not new mothers tend to rely on their partners, the fathers for emotional support as they gradually grapple through early motherhood.
But fathers too have their fair share of postpartum adaptations that they need to accept in their lives. Although the spectrum at which these changes affect the lives of men vary when compared to those of the women, but it cannot be denied that fathers too have whirlwind of change in their lives that must be acknowledged.
It is fairly common for most men to truly sense the shift that early days of parenthood brings along, only once the baby is born and home. Up until then pregnancy for them has been more about watching their wives transform over the nine months while she feels the baby growing within her.
The birth of the baby and their partners attention shifting predominately over the new bundle of joy, often has the fathers also realise the shift in their relationship between the couple.
The realisation does eventually creep in for many that it will no longer be only about each other, but also about them as unit.
As patriarchy has had it for several years, fathers are looked upon as the providers for the family. For many the early postpartum journey can bring in additional financial security burdens that may take time to adjust & adapt to.
Social lives too for fathers is an aspect of their lives that does see a change. Often when they are one of the first ones to embrace parenthood in their circle, they need to navigate their lives around their baby and this is something that impacts social commitments as well.
This is commonly one of the primary reasons too that men have lesser outlets to share their evolving emotional mind frame. New fathers and relatively those with no known fathers around them (to young babies) find it difficult to be able to share their experiences and feeling with others. Many a times this inbuilt conflict is also seen to manifest into anxiety for men in the early years of parenthood.
While women must deal with the aspect of having to navigate their days as per the baby’s routine, fathers trying to share the load with their partners for baby care too face a reasonable amount of sleep deprivation and thus drop in productivity, which often can hamper their professional lives and result in mental stress.
Like it is widely said, a child gives birth to a mother. But we do forget that the same child does give birth to a father too.
The lives of both parents change postpartum and fathers too should be supported through these changes as they strive to make their way through early parenthood.
Mansi Zaveri
Mihika Edwin Menezes
Rushita Sheth
Parul Gupta
KSP Team
