From Man to Father: Norwegian First-Time Fathers’ Experience of the Transition to Fatherhood

Abstract

Objective: To explore how men experience becoming a father for the first time and how they perceive their role during their partner's pregnancy, childbirth and the early period with a newborn child. Methods:The study had a qualitative design. Nine individual interviews were conducted with first-time fathers. Qualitative content analysis was used to interpret the data material.Results: The men's ages were from 25 to 45 years. They were all Norwegian, seven were cohabitants, and two were married. Four categories describing fathers' experience of the transition to their role as fathers were identified: Expectations of fatherhood, delivery, barriers to the father's role, and facilitators of the father's role. Conclusion:Development of the fatherhood role is a process in which the man transitions from relating to the abstractness of pregnancy via concretization through birth to the realization phase after birth. Growth in the father's positive engagement depends on a sense of mastery, meaningfulness, control and manageability in relation to his child, his partner and his new everyday life. Identified factors facilitate or inhibit the development of a positive fatherhood role. The sum of the factors determines how this role is experienced. Insight into the fatherhood role is important to enable health professionals to provide personalized follow-up of high quality in the health services. Better follow-up will enable public health nurses and midwives to strengthen the role of both the individual father and the family as a whole. This will in turn contribute to better health and development for the child.

Placing myself in a new normalized life: The process of becoming a first‐time father. A grounded theory study

“…These have been called "reality boosters" (Jordan, 1990) or "body-mediated moments" (Draper, 2003). Men included these aspects in their accounts, describing how they helped them realize that the child was real and decreased the feeling of unreality, which was also described in previous studies (Chin et al, 2011;Solberg & Glavin, 2018).…”

Depression, parenting and the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada: results from three nationally representative cross-sectional surveys

“… 66 67 A review article concluded that mindful meditation could be taught to parents and was effective in improving self-regulation among those experiencing chronic stress. 68 A Norwegian study 69 reported that fathers’ positive engagement with children was dependent on a sense of mastery.…”

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“…Masa transisi digambarkan sebagai periode kurangnya rasa percaya diri, kekurangan waktu istirahat serta memiliki tekanan emosional. Ayah merasa sangat sulit untuk membicarakan kesehatan mentalnya bahkan dengan pasangannya sendiri, terutama jika pasangannya juga mengalami gangguan kesehatan mental (Solberg and Glavin, 2018).…”

“…Faktor ekonomi menyebabkan ayah bekerja lebih lama dan menyebabkan masalah psikologis karena keinginan untuk memastikan ketersediaan dan keamanan keuangan keluarga (Solberg and Glavin, 2018). Memiliki bayi berarti mengubah gaya hidup dan memiliki pengeluaran tambahan (Baldwin et al, 2019).…”