Dads Experience Post Partum Depression Too
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“New fathers face many changes after their child’s birth, and need more support, experts say.
Not all men are Hallmark-happy when they become a brand-new dad. Take the case of one father who remembers seeming “totally disconnected” from his newborn twins as he drove home from the hospital in San Diego after their birth. That feeling built into a debilitating mix of anxiety, depression, grief and shame over the next two months.
“It was really scary for me,” says the 42-year-old mortgage lender. “I couldn’t identify what was happening and didn’t have the tools to deal with what I was feeling.”
He is not alone. In the U.S., 1 in 7 fathers suffers from depression during the perinatal period, or the time during pregnancy and a child’s infancy, according to research. And that skyrockets to 1 in 4 men during the three- to six-month period after birth, and to 1 in 2 dads when the mother also experiences postpartum depression.”
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