Category Archives: Mantenatal

Wonderful photos of dads meeting their baby’s for the first time

Source: 18 heart-warming moments when fathers met their babies for the first time

The fantastic Mark Harris on Radio 2 this afternoon talking about his book and dads and birth – well worth a listen

Source: BBC Radio 2 – Steve Wright in the Afternoon, Elijah Wood, Judge Rinder and Mark Harris, Mark Harris talks midwifery with Steve Wright

Blog piece about dads bonding with their babies 

Source: Adorable Advert: Nervous New Dad Bonds With Baby | BellyBelly

Great piece by an Australian dad about entering the female world of birth

Source: The Birthing Zone: Secret Men’s Business (Part 1)

Interesting piece summarising the findings of research by Anna Machin into fathers during pregnancy, labour and early parenting

Source: Fathers’ experiences of the birth of their children

Loads of great publicity around for this new book by midwife Mark Harris – I have not finished reading yet but already I can tell that it is definitely one I would recommend to expectant dads.

Source: Former builder turned MIDWIFE pens birthing ‘bible’ for blokes | Life | Life & Style | Daily Express

Information about a weekly dads group in Huntingdon – a couple of mums had asked me recently if there was anything around that was on a week day.

Source: Local Dad’s Group is a huge success!

Final thing for Father’s Day – if you know an expectant dad with a baby due in the autumn please pass on the link about Mantenatal morning in September – great way for dads-to-be to meet others and think about pregnancy, birth and early parenting from their point of view

Source: Mantenatal course in Cambridge for due dates in October and November – 5G/C1251 | NCT

Another great article for Father’s Day – lots of interesting points so sad to hear of a dad being told his role for labour was to make sandwiches, fill the car with petrol and do as he was told – dads can do so much more to benefit them, their partners and their children we need to think about how we can support.

GENDER equality was recently put centre-stage by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, with a commitment to ensure that no woman faces a “glass ceiling” that limits their ambitions.

Source: Why we’ll never achieve gender equality until fathers are at the heart of family life | Herald Scotland

Couple more things for Father’s Day – first this piece about the need to engage with fathers – as others have said today many of us involved in trying to do this already – but more to do

Source: Time to Act for Dads & Partners | Maternity Experience

Ahead of Father’s Day tomorrow this is a fantastic and moving reflection on fatherhood by one dad

A cartoonist’s journey into first-time fatherhood

Source: Father’s Days

Source: Fathers describe home birth as magical

Thank you so much to Diary of a new dad for this blog review of his experience of coming along to the last Mantenatal workshop.

Mantenatal | Diary of a new dad.

Really useful response from the Fatherhood Institute to the media storm about dads and childbirth today.

No, dads don’t make pain of childbirth worse…far from it, in fact!: The Fatherhood Institute.

Further to the research linked to earlier this debate from Five Live this morning really interesting – I really agree with Mark Harris from Birthing For Blokes and Cathy Warwick from the RCM that preparation is key to this – supporting couples antenatally – this is very much my aim too.

BBC Radio 5 live – 5 live Breakfast, Your Call, 21/01/2015.

I cam across this when preparing for a Water Birth Workshop later in the week – shows how wonderfully dads can support their partners in labour and the clear emotional connection between them.

She’s Giving Birth To Their Baby When Her Husband Does THIS…OMG! : HotMomsClub.

Interesting article from the papers today – but I think we need to be careful to jump to conclusions this study was not done with women who were in labour and it is not clear if their partners were actually trying to give them support or were just in the room

Fathers in delivery room could make pain of childbirth worse, study suggests – Telegraph.

Really interesting piece about some new research on dads experience of home birth as the author says “the paper makes it very clear just what can be gained by dads when they are able to engage in the journey of birth-giving with their partner”

Fathers describe home birth as magical | sarawickham.

Sad to hear this bloggers reflections on being ignored by health professionals

Bringing Fathers In campaign; dads do matter | Dad Blog UKBringing Fathers In campaign; dads do matter – Dad Blog UK.

Really useful frequently asked questions about dads interacting with their newborn babies.

How dads affect newborn babies.