ABSTRACT
Fathers have a key role to play during pregnancy in supporting the pregnant woman. Partner support is powerful in affecting the woman’s adjustment to pregnancy and more powerful than the influence of other people close to her. Fathers’ style of play with their babies and toddlers tends to be more ‘challenging’ than mothers’, with teasing being a frequent characteristic. The educator can explain to fathers that their way of playing with and talking to their babies and infants has been shown to build children’s confidence as well as enhancing the relationship between child and father. A review of interdisciplinary research into child welfare practice across the world found that services were ‘quite resistant to father-inclusive practice’ and that their focus tended to be exclusively on mothers. Fathers’ role was, in fact, about to change by necessity, as more and more mothers went back to work following the birth of their babies, and household and childcare responsibilities had to be shared.
